Sir, I have just finished reading your item on the Credit Union Bill (January 24th) and I am dismayed to read your final paragraph.
If the vision of the Minister responsible for the Credit Union Bill is so myopic that he can state publicly that a £20,000 limit on a loan to a Credit Union member is "appropriate for Credit Union activity" I think it is high time that the 1,700,000 Credit Union members in this country made it crystal clear that we are not so many Lilliputians, but citizens of a State that is supposed to be free; that we have a basic right to manage our own affairs; that our savings are our own and that we have a right to use them for our own provident and productive purposes, and that we have a right to decide ourselves what these purposes are.
Many of our members are PAYE workers who have been keeping this country afloat and providing the funds for ministerial £50,000 cars. Now we are to be told that one of these members cannot be given £21,000 to purchase his own car or tractor but must go, by ministerial order in effect, to commercial financial agencies and be funded from these. Moreover, Credit Union boards must now off load the savings which their members have diligently accummulated to outside financial agencies, rather than give them to their own members who seek accommodation in excess of £20,000.
Is this appropriate legislation for free law abiding citizens, many of whom have been liberated from poverty level by "Credit Union activity"? Perhaps it isn't appropriate for our citizens to rise above a certain level of prosperity.
- Yours, etc.,
Parish of St. Peter's,
Fair Street,
Drogheda, Co. Louth.