Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Aiken and Ms Glen. It is great that they have given such forthright answers.

The question I wish to pose relates to the banking industry. As our guests will be aware, economic activity in Ireland has been greatly affected in recent times as a result of austerity and on foot of the lack of lending to SMEs. Some 99% of businesses in Ireland are SMEs. The Government has taken a huge step towards addressing the lack of lending to which I refer by earmarking €3.6 billion to be lent to the SME sector by Bank of Ireland and AIB, two of the banks we bailed out. There have been complaints to the effect that this money has only been used to restructure existing loans or turn overdrafts into term loans. The latter has given rise to major difficulties. In recent times the UK Government, through the Treasury, granted a licence to Metro Bank and I understand a considerable amount of this institution's lending is targeted at the SME sector. Are our guests of the opinion that Ireland could benefit from a similar arrangement? If any of their members has acquired loans from this bank, perhaps they might be in a position to impart some information on their experience.