In a year when over 200 credit unions will struggle to make any profit the news that 80 or so were travelling to the WOCCU annual conference was bizarre.
There is no excuse for spending so much for so little return at a time when the Irish movement is on its financial knees. It's a time when the financial regulator in its annual report gave a chilling insight into what happened in 2008 and warned about 2009. A time, when tens of thousands of credit union customers are losing their jobs and unable to repay their loans. A time when savings volumes are declining, loan delinquency rising, liquidity is collapsing and solvency imploding.
This is the time when 80 credit unionists fly out, to do exactly what?
To make matters even more bizarre it seems the entire board of ILCU travelled. The usual naïve nonsense of “rewarding unremunerated directors” was peddled as an excuse as the ILCU refused to provide details of the size of the Irish delegation to a national daily the Irish Examiner. Undaunted the Examiner obtained the information and printed it. ILCU declined to talk saying it was concerned over the spin that would be put on the story. Spin? There’s no spinning the fact that once again money is being spent for little or no return.
Close onto 1000 Irish delegates have attended WOCCU world conferences since they first started. Many have of course travelled more than once as they are serial attendees. Yet for all the money spent, which must be in excess of €1m not one initiative, new product or service innovation or any change at all has been implemented arising from these trips.
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