Addendum to Report on Research into Credit Union Directors July 2022

Minister of State for Finance launches the Report on Research into Credit Union Directors

The Minister of State with responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance, Seán Fleming TD, today launched ‘A Report on Research into Credit Union Directors’ (the Report) at University College Cork’s Centre for Executive Education.

The Report was developed by the Credit Union Advisory Committee. The Credit Union Advisory Committee are appointed by the Minister to advise the Department of Finance on credit union matters.

The Report was published in 2020 and the planned launch was postponed due to COVID-19.

In 2022, the Credit Union Advisory Committee decided to revisit this research through the Addendum to the Report.

The research carried out by the Credit Union Advisory Committee involved a sector wide consultation and extensive engagement with individual credit union Directors. A total of 924 Directors participated in the survey and 49 Directors participated in the focus groups.

The Key findings from the Addendum broadly reflect findings from the 2020 Directors Report. The emerging themes of both pieces of research can be summarised as follows:

• The rewarding nature of the role of Director and its positive impact on personal and professional development.
• The challenges of time commitment and level of responsibility, in particular the increased burden of regulation and legislation as a perceived key driver of this.
• The potential for Directors to use their time more efficiently.
• The need for Directors to spend more time on strategic issues and less time on operational issues which could be delegated to the management team.
• The need for Directors to hold fewer committee positions.

ENDS