Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

The employment investment incentive scheme could be a very important source of SME funding if it was altered in terms of risk profile, branded and promoted to a wider group of investors. There are many people who would want to invest in real Irish businesses if the tax system facilitated it. We are missing an opportunity by not doing that.

I will make one final comment if the Chair will allow me. On the important issue of access to credit for SMEs, in Ireland there is no incentive for anyone selling a business at the moment to reinvest the proceeds of that sale into another Irish start up or growth business, unlike in the UK where there is roll-over relief whereby if a person selling a business reinvests the proceeds he or she receives an offset against capital gains tax. There are many people selling good businesses but there is no incentive for them in the tax system to reinvest the proceeds in this country. There should be such a system.