Mr. John A. Moran:

There is a lot in those questions. I hope that in the next couple of hours we will get into the matter in more detail. As I stated in my opening remarks, the most important point is that we need to get cash quickly to firms. Bills are piling up and need to be paid. A bill that is not paid by one firm impacts on another firm's revenue and creates a problem. The issue does not disappear as a result of a firm hiding from the bill. SMEs will not take on debt at 5% or 6% which involves filling in lengthy application forms. Some people have the view that the State has been very generous in its support of SMEs through allocating €6.5 billion, but the measures are not working. Firms have only taken up €100 million of that funding.

Prior to this session, my colleagues and I discussed how, in the previous crisis, the SME sector was riddled with debt, much of it taken on to fund property speculation. That held those firms back from being able to recover. Banks would not restructure their debt. They will not follow that path this time around. We need the State to release a large scheme of grant aid. It can do so in two phases. In our report, we have recommended that cash be made available quickly in this emergency phase. If that is in the form of loans, that is fine, as long as every firm knows that once they have calculated their losses, they can convert that debt into grants which can be issued by the Revenue. That will allow us to move quickly.