Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair point and it forms part of the thinking behind the establishment of the strategic investment bank which is to provide a vehicle to make it easier for us to draw on funding from the European Investment Bank or KfW, the German equivalent. Investors need to have an appetite for risk with regard to SMEs. These funds may sound great in principle but often the level of risk investors are willing to take on is not as great. There are always issues about how risk is shared and who takes the risk. Ireland has been reasonably innovative in the way we have used money to leverage private sector money and we have done quite well in this regard. The European Investment Bank has been involved in some cases but generally speaking our development capital funds and seed and venture funds have had some Exchequer money and considerable private sector money from those who have an appetite for risk. SME funding requires investors with a risk appetite. The strategic investment bank is to be regarded as the vehicle for attracting more of that sort of money. It will also be a case of having the right financial products. Our banks have not been sufficiently innovative in presenting financial products. We are looking at options such as export factoring and invoice discounting. Some of these instruments could be relevant if they could be produced at the right price for business.

To be fair to the European Union, it has invested SME funding mechanisms in both COSME and Horizon 2020, the two big programmes which have a bearing on businesses.