Current Projects

Conference on Financial Exclusion and Consumer Debt Research: The Centre for Co-operative Studies has recently been awarded funding by Combat Poverty Agency, to host a conference on Financial exclusion and consumer debt research. The conference will bring key researchers in these areas together to disseminate their findings collectively and to act as a forum within which issues in financial exclusion and over-indebtedness in Ireland can be explored and debated by researchers policy-makers, regulators, financial service providers (especially credit unions), social partners, organisations working to combat financial exclusion, and politicians. The event is intended to help to continue to raise awareness of the issues surrounding financial exclusion and over-indebtedness in Ireland and to identify key areas for action and for further research. It is proposed to hold the event in Aula Maxima, University College Cork during September, 2007

Book Series: The Centre was commissioned to write a series of six books by Oak Tree Press, The first of the series has been published and is entitled ‘Helping Ourselves: Success Stories in Co-operative Business and Social Enterprise’.  To  find out more about the book click here

Department of Agriculture and Food: Research Stimulus Fund: (M. Ward, O.McCarthy, R. Briscoe, M. O'Shaughnessy): Funding was awarded for a project examining Effective Structures for Farmers' Markets. This is a three-year project from October 2006 to September 2009. Ms Aisling Moroney has been appointed to undertake this research as part of her PhD. 

Combat Poverty Agency: Policy Research: (N. Byrne, O. McCarthy, M. Ward): Funding was awarded for a research study entitled 'Evaluation of the Credit Union and MABS Services in terms of their impact on the Financial Capability of Low-Income Groups'. This research will directly build on recent research carried out by Byrne, McCarthy and Ward (2005) which highlighted that while access to financial services is essential, it also vital to ensure that people have the ability to use these financial services. The overall aim of the proposed research is to evaluate the credit union and MABS services in terms of the standard service and targeted pilot initiatives in terms of their effectiveness in building financial capability. The research will commence in early 2007.

President's PhD Scholarship in the Colleges of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences, and the College of Business & Law, 2006: (O. McCarthy): The President's PhD scholarship will fund a student to undertake a PhD on credit union governance from 2006 - 2009. The scholarship will cover the PhD fees of a full-time student for 3 years. Mr Ted O'Sullivan has been appointed under the terms of this scholarship.

EMES: is a research network of established university research centres and individual researchers whose goal is to gradually build up an European corpus of theoretical and empirical knowledge , pluralistic in disciplines and methodology, around “Third Sector” issues. For more information see http://www.emes.net/

Meeting the Credit Needs of Low Income Groups: Credit Unions-v-Moneylenders: (N. Byrne, O.McCarthy and M. Ward):The research for this study was funded under the Poverty Research Initiative 2004 of the Combat Poverty Agency. The study focused on examining the service of the credit union and the moneylender in terms of credit provision to low-income groups. The research also estimated the extent of moneylending in two communities in Munster. It was found that a significant number of people borrow from moneylenders but that well over half are simultaneously borrowing from mainstream sources, in particular the credit union.Within the literature, borrowing from a moneylender is seen as an indicator of being excluded from other more affordable sources of credit. However, in Ireland borrowing from a moneylender is not a clear indicator of financial exclusion, as a significant proportion of moneylender borrowers are also borrowing from mainstream sources. This analysis also brings out the nature of the borrower and moneylender relationship which is based on tradition, convenience and the development of a close relationship which can create the basis for dependency.We conclude that any policy approach must not only focus on access to financial services but must also equally focus on financial education and regulation. The research is published under the Combat Poverty Agency Working Paper Series as Working Paper 05/05. It can be located on the http://www.cpa.ie