Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I missed part of the meeting but I look forward to reading that document. Obviously, it has been a very positive session and there is much food for thought in everything said, particularly those very strong words from Liam Griffin. I could see how he was successful on the hurling field. We have many issues to address. The banking situation is certainly one that exercises the minds of many. In the past few days, three guys who set up a nice little business in my town, rescued it from a redundancy situation, had 15 jobs and orders for €1 million between now and Christmas. However, they have the receiver in because the banks will not give them €150,000 to tide them over. That is the kind of thing we are up against and we have some major issues to address. Hopefully, strong people will take strong decisions during the remainder of this year and into next year because if we can address this major crisis in our country and get people back to work, the tide will lift all boats. We must nurture the entrepreneurs - the people who have the ideas - but we must make it possible for them to do business and start up as well. I like the idea of the local authorities being prepared to wait until the business is making money before they start levying charges to give them a break.