Attempts by legislators and regulators at Government and European level to regard credit unions as "mere carbon copies" of other financial service providers must be resisted, a conference in Limerick heard at the weekend.
The president of the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), Mr John O'Regan, said that perhaps the most important challenge for the movement going forward was to continue to protect and project the ways in which credit unions are unique.
Mr O'Regan was addressing the first ILCU Consultative General Meeting (a new form of bi-annual meeting recommended by the Review Commission headed by Mr Phil Flynn). The league will now hold consultative and biennial delegate meetings on alternate years.
Mr O'Regan told delegates that, during the year, more than 90 per cent of the recommendations from the 2002 Review Commission had been implemented.
He said studies of the credit union movement here and globally have identified very clearly that the Irish movement is at the "transition stage" of development.
"The history of older credit union movements confirms that the types of tensions and difficulties that have beset our movement in recent years have been experienced by them on the road to maturity," he said.
"Learning from this global experience, it is clear that the manner by which these tensions and difficulties are resolved and the process of inclusive strategic planning which is undertaken, are central to the outcome of a successful and responsive credit union movement."
Mr O'Regan said the cohesiveness of the movement must be a critical objective. He said it was regrettable that it had not been possible to engage in dialogue with the breakaway Credit Union Development Association.
The decisions of the Greystones Credit Union and the St Mary's Navan Credit Union to cease their affiliations with the league were a source of regret and disappointment, he said.
Mr O'Regan said the league had already established a good working relationship with the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) and IFSRA's regulator to the credit unions, Mr Brendan Logue.
The president said the league and the Competition Authority had been taking a "commonsense" approach to a number of issues they were discussing until the authority then rejected this approach and initiated legal proceedings. He said the advice to the league was that its rules and practices do not breach competition law. The case is due to come to the High Court this year.
