Credit Unions can fill loan gap

FARMERS finding it difficult to get credit from the main banks and financial institutions have been advised this week that the Credit Union outlets in Galway are ‘more than willing’ to provide loans.

Last month, the IFA – along with a number of retail concerns – said that farmers and small businesses were being denied badly needed credit by the main banks.

The IFA also accused the banks of imposing unreasonable conditions in situations where farmers had sought to put refinancing arrangments in place.

However this week, one of the region’s leading credit unions said that farmers would find that the Credit Union movement a very willing partner in terms of credit and loan facilities.

Michael Culkeen, Manager of Tuam Credit Union, told the Farming Tribune that many small to medium sized farmers had found loans difficult to access from banks.

“Many of these are people who have credit union accounts as they are. These are people who are honest, straightforward and hard working – our doors are open for business to these people,” said Michael Culkeen.

He said that through the thick and thin of the financial crisis since 2008, the amount of default in farming debt continued to be very low.

“While some of the bigger commercial farmers have been able to access credit, the smaller operator – with maybe 20 cattle and fifty sheep – has not been accommodated by the banks.

“The Credit Union movement want to get the message out there that if such members of the farming community want to finance some project, that we are very much in the business of being able to help them out,” said Michael Culkeen.

The IFA along with the Vintners Federation, the Property Owners Association and the RGDATA retail group, said last month that farmers and other small businesses were enduring high levels of stress due to the credit squeeze.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.