Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. In the last couple of seconds remaining, I wish to ask about the credit guarantee scheme. As we know, there has always been a credit guarantee scheme here, with X billion euro available to it. The Government has announced a new credit guarantee scheme which will basically guarantee about 40%. Is that not correct? It is an 80% guarantee but it has a 50% portfolio cap so it amounts to a 40% guarantee for the banks. I ask Dr. Quinn to outline the interest rate that will apply to the loans. How does she believe it will be any more successful than the failed guarantee scheme that already exists? Why has the Department not engaged with business representative bodies such as ISME and IBEC regarding the legislation? Why has the Department not decided to do what has been done in other jurisdictions in terms of providing 100% guarantees? I ask the Department to submit to this committee a comparison between the stimulus packages in other European jurisdictions and that available in Ireland. Germany, for example, has announced a €1.3 trillion stimulus package, equivalent to 30% of its GDP.

We are in the ha'penny place, and as a result, businesses are telling me daily that they are finished. They are giving up because they do not have the support they need to hang on any longer.