Members approve Birr Credit Union's merger with Athenry

This is a landmark week in the history of Birr Credit Union, as its members have voted almost unanimously to approve its amalgamation with Athenry Credit Union.

The merger was passed with 98% support at the Birr Credit Union AGM on Monday, and was then passed unanimously at the Athenry Credit Union AGM the following night.

It means that, pending formal approval of the arrangement by the Central Bank in the coming weeks, the credit union on O'Connell Street is expected to close on February 25 and then reopen as the Birr branch of Athenry Credit Union on Tuesday, March 1.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, Birr Credit Union CEO Andrew Barrett said the change would bring a variety of benefits for the local members.

"This is fantastic for Birr," he said. "The first and most important thing for the members is that there's no question about the branch closing. It will be staying open.

"The name over the door will still say Birr Credit Union. They may end up changing that name in the future, I don't know, but at the moment we will be the Birr branch of the Athenry Credit Union."

He also said a number of new services, such as ATM access through debit cards and improved online financial systems, would become available to Birr members as a result of joining the larger Athenry group.

In addition, he said, that "with every loan product that we have, the interest rates will be dropping from day one" when the merger is complete.

"We have €12 million of lending so, for the Birr area in real terms, there will be a minimum of €100,000 in savings that our members will have in their pockets and be able to spend locally (as a result of the interest rate reductions). That's significant," he explained.

The transfer of some 'back office' functions to Athenry will mean a reduction in the number of staff working in Birr, but Mr Barrett said all of the redundancies, including his own as CEO, were voluntary. "We obviously don't need as many staff because a lot of the back office functions will be done centrally," he said.

"A number of staff here have requested to move forward and become part of the new organisation, and a number have said that they would prefer not to. They have been offered a generous severance package, but it's all voluntary.

"The board's attitude was, 'If you want to stay there's no problem and if you want to go that's no problem. We will look after you whichever way.'" The path towards this merger - or transfer of engagements as it's officially known - began after a review of Birr Credit Union's strategic plan in late 2018 and early 2019.

"It became apparent from the plan that there were potential issues down the road for Birr, where we weren't going to be able to offer new services because we wouldn't have been able to afford them," said Mr Barrett.

"We started looking at potential partners and did a review of all the credit unions within a 100-mile radius from us."

This was eventually whittled down to five potential partners for Birr and it was decided that Athenry, which also has branches in Ballygar, Kilkerrin, Kinvara, Menlough and Portumna, would be the most suitable fit.

"We found that the ethos of Athenry Credit Union was very much in line with our own. They had gone through a number of transfers of engagement already so they knew what they were at and they were a bigger credit union offering facilities that we couldn't," said Mr Barrett.

He said the amalgamation would have been completed more quickly if not for the pandemic. "The process got stalled a little bit with Covid, otherwise this would probably have been done a year ago," he said.

While the board of Birr Credit Union is being dissolved as part of the merger process, Mr Barrett said some of the volunteers would be getting involved with the new Athenry organisation. "It's important for the people of Birr to continue to look to become involved in whatever way in their credit union," he said.