Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not labour the point, but I dispute some of the Minister of State's contentions and ask him to reflect on them.

This is about information that will be held on this register. It will concern an application that would have been made to amend the information by an individual or a small and medium-sized enterprise, SME, but the bank has disagreed with the information. The information that can be contained in this register should not be significant. It should not take much to adjudicate on the accuracy or non-accuracy of a statement on the register.

We have had banks in the State that have not operated in the best fashion - that is probably the biggest understatement of the year. An SME in the right with a turnover of over €3 million will have to go to the courts to have the register amended and its rights vindicated. A mistaken entry on the register could put an SME’s future and its employees in jeopardy because it could deny it access to credit.