Credit Review Bill 2024: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Conor Murphy (SF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I welcome the fact that the Government has restored the Bill to the Order Paper for the current Oireachtas session as it committed to do at the end of the previous Oireachtas.
I understand the legislation is required due to the ongoing wind-up of NAMA, which means that the functions of the Credit Review Office need to be put on a legislative footing. Sinn Féin will be supporting the Bill, as the Government has confirmed that it will help guarantee the continuity of the industry funding model, formalise the governance structures of the service and support the enhancement of service's responsibility.
I have spoken to colleagues and they have confirmed that they have used Credit Review and signposted constituents to its services. In some cases, there have been very positive outcomes for small businesses, including farmers. However, one of the potential weaknesses of the Bill is that any recommendation made by the credit reviewer to a bank in favour of a small business seeking credit is non-binding. Some constituents who have been signposted to the service and secured a recommendation that a bank should lend to them have still been refused by the bank. This is something that we will be closely monitoring in terms of banks' compliance with recommendations to reconsider loan applications that have been rejected. It would be a useful proposition for the Credit Review Office to monitor and perhaps publish information on the rate of bank reversals of decisions not to lend based on a recommendation by the service.
I note that the service currently only works with AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB and previously worked with Ulster Bank. We now have a range of other lenders in the market. Does the Minister of State have any plan to bring them within the scope of the credit review service?
With regard to Ulster Bank, there is a wider issue with Credit Review. Banks in this State currently lend to businesses across the island, so it would be worth examining the extension of the service to businesses in the North of Ireland that have borrowed from banks in this part of the island. I hope the Minister of State would reconsider whether this could be done in the future as a further protection for Irish businesses and the all-Ireland economy.
I concur with some of Senator Joe O'Reilly's points about the passing on of loans to other organisations and people's very different experiences. One of these issues was raised at the finance committee through correspondence and I have asked the committee to look into it. How these outstanding loans are dealt with by banks passing them on to other organisations is an issue that is coming before us.
Sinn Féin will not be opposing this legislation. The service provided by Credit Review is required and has benefited many small enterprises and farmers across the State.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21