My wife and I have availed ourselves of its services for the past ten years. When asked by my friends ‘what it was’ I would have jokingly replied that it was the Presbyterian version of the Credit Union in Ireland.

That was before different groups associated, I think mostly with Orange Lodges, set up The Assn. of Ulster Credit Unions.

I was aware of the great benefit socially and financially the Irish Credit Union (founded by John Hume and others in Derry in 1960) was to people in local communities. Today it has over one hundred branches in Northern Ireland and in the whole of Ireland has some 2.9 million members( ie more than half the population) with savings circa. 13.4 billion Euros.

Dealing with the PMS we have never found their staff in Belfast anything but efficient and accommodating.

A meeting on this topic was held recently in Buckna Presbyterian Church.

There was no formal advertisment and, I think, news about it was spread by word of mouth and possibly by notices read from some Presbyterian pulpits the previous Sunday. I am still not certain by whom the meeting was organized - the local congregation or the Presbytery.

A large number of people attended.

The meeting was chaired by a former Ballymena Presbytery Moderator Rev. Dr. Finlay. He introduced panel members who, he said, would try to answer any questions relating to the present situation that the PMS found itself in.

I was taken aback when I discovered that on the panel along with Lyle Cubitt, who is a retired solicitor and a serving Elder in my own Chuch, the Pubic Relations Officer of Presbyterian Church in Ireland and two accountants was Mervyn Storey M.L.A.

On reflection I found that having a DUP representative was probably no bad thing.

I consider that Arlene Foster, the DUP Minister for Department of Enterprise,Trade and Investment has a responsibility for Credit Unions, Mutual, Provident an Co-Operative Societies.