Mr. Tim Fenn:

The first question relates to Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland supports, as well as grant aid and the loan guarantee schemes. There is also an Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, initiative. None of these are working, especially for our industry. The banks have their own issues about how to protect their own balance sheets and maybe how they price their products etc. We are asking that any Government initiative should look at a different structure to release money to the businesses that need it most. There should be an investment bank or agency to give the Government the channels to release that money without getting caught in the trap of the banks trying to protect themselves. The banks have a job of work to do but at the end of the day what we have is a crisis. The Government should be prepared to help small and medium-sized enterprises to recapitalise in a manner that is more than just asking them to go to the banks and look for borrowings at 4% or whatever - the percentage does not matter.

At the end of the day these businesses need liquidity. These are businesses whose balance sheets have been damaged by Covid-19 because were asked to close in the interests of public health. What we and they are asking for now is for the Government to figure a way of recapitalising those businesses so that they have the resources to have a fair chance of survival going forward. If this does not happen there will not be the same recovery that we should have and there will be a situation where the 270,000 livelihoods that exist right across the island of Ireland, particularly on the western seaboard, and 70% of these livelihoods are outside of Dublin, will not be able to be secured.