Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The committee has put forward proposals on the investment bank. We do not believe it will take a number of years to set them up. We have worked with various people who are interested in setting them up. This can be up and running quite quickly as a short-term measure. I would not call it a state investment bank because that might focus on State investment. It is the old ICC model. Basically it is a business bank. Some of the money being released at present will be for State projects and we need to ensure it will be available to business of all sizes. It can be done quite quickly. From what we can see, we are hitting a brick wall and there is nearly a fear in certain Departments about setting up another bank. We need to get over that. The allusion was that it could be attached to an existing bank. That will not work. We need a bank like the ICC and its rival, we will continue to push the idea.