Mr. Mark O'Mahoney:

On a practical basis, for the vast majority of our members, the direct benefits will be relatively limited, because an Irish SME typically has fewer than 50 employees - not necessarily a medium-sized corporate entity, or mid-cap - which will affect whether they will benefit from some of the proposed measures, such as a review of the prospectus directive or the private placement market. That will typically suit the Mittelstand or the larger SMEs at the core of Europe. However, there are opportunities to encourage more venture capital and in areas around crowd-funding and non-traditional bank finance and reducing the overall reliance on bank finance and debt. One of the key benefits of the CMU will be helping to change the culture in terms of Irish SMEs looking beyond the retail bank and traditional loan finance. There is also the principle of an efficient flow of capital within the Union.