Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

No. I can clarify the numbers to the best of my recollection. Just under 1,000 jobs have been supported by the credit guarantee scheme and we cannot put any ceiling on our ambition with regard to the number of jobs that would be maintained and supported. During the difficult years of 2012 and 2013 - the early years of the scheme's operation - we had to value the role that the scheme played, albeit in a limited way, in maintaining jobs. This was when people were trying to keep the doors open over the past number of years.

There are major possibilities for the scheme but they will very much depend on the way in which this is promoted. Of course, the scheme will benefit SMEs by enabling them to access credit where they would not otherwise be able to obtain it. That is the point, as the purpose of developing the scheme in the first place was to ensure that we could address a market failure during a very difficult time for banks. As bank balance sheets continue to be repaired and as those institutions develop a greater appetite for providing financing in the normal way, the role of this scheme and the SBCI may evolve. New products and markets will come on stream and new possibilities will emerge.

One of the fundamental points is that the SBCI's involvement is crucial from a counter guarantee perspective.

It would facilitate the combination of the scheme with other opportunities and other sources of risk sharing capital from Europe, significantly increasing the amount of resources available for SMEs. We are not rowing back on this. We recognise that this scheme has had a limited effect and did not achieve its original ambitions and that is why we are here today, to try to fix that and to ensure we are happy to accept the changes proposed in the review. We have had that discussion on Second Stage and at other fora. We want to champion and introduce changes that will make this scheme more attractive, to lead to an improved situation for SMEs and increased use and awareness by banks of what is available through the scheme and other finance providers.