Mr. Mark O'Mahoney:

On the question of the common SME information and the related administrative burden, I agree absolutely the issue is that a necessary precursor to whatever the capital markets union will be is the availability of some kind of comparable information at intra-EU level. The asymmetrical information is always the issue. It is a question of how a potential investor in Germany assesses the proposition of an SME in Ireland, Greece or elsewhere. Some mechanism needs to be developed so there can be meaningful comparisons between SMEs' creditworthiness and investment-worthiness without having a system that is unduly burdensome on the SME. I do not have an answer to that at present but SMEs will probably have to examine this. If they want to engage in overseas or cross-border investment, they will have to be willing to put a bit of work into producing information that is comparable.

On the point on equity, a couple of schemes across Europe have considered giving an allowance for equity in the same way as one would get a deduction for debt. Belgium has one, as have Italy and Portugal. It is worth considering again, regardless of the merits or demerits of the BES, because there is a greater imperative at present with the equity gap that we all speak about. The retail banks will fund perhaps 70% of a loan while 30% equity will have to be found elsewhere. Irish SMEs will have to get used to finding or being open to equity investment. That is a challenge, particularly given the nature of the typical Irish SME and the preponderance of family-owned businesses. They are very reluctant to give away equity. It will have to happen if Irish SMEs are to continue to grow. Now is the time to re-examine equity treatment or the tax treatment of equity.