I would refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 81 on Thursday, 25 January 1996, Volume 460, No. 5, columns 1395-6.
I would also say that the publication of this Bill at the earliest possible date is a high priority with me. It is a priority because of the importance of the credit union movement in our society. The movement is all-Ireland with more than 500 individual credit unions, four-fifths of them in the Republic. Total membership is in the order of one and three-quarter million people and membership in recent years has been growing at around 10 per cent per annum on average. The credit unions' combined loan book in 1994 was estimated at £1.3 billion and lending was growing at something in the order of 20 per cent per annum.
All of this has been achieved by a movement based on notions of voluntarism, the common bond, community, and self-help. It is a movement that has created a very significant financial services organisation that commands the loyalty of its members, delivers service and value and does all of this outside the framework of private ownership and the profit motive. I value all of this and what is has contributed to local, family, personal and social development on this island, North and South.