Clause 5
4:30 pm
Jim Devine (Livingston, Labour)
The champagne is on me, Mr. Taylor.
My hon. Friend the Economic Secretary is right. I have been investigating credit unions. They cover only 1 per cent. of the population in England and 2 per cent. of the population in Scotland. In Ireland, they cover 70 per cent. of the population. It was interesting that the Irish Government did a similar project about 10 years ago, which worked very successfully, because the credit unions were embedded in local communities. We have post offices that are embedded in local communities. Why do we not use them?