Mr. John A. Moran:

The best observation on the numbers the Deputy has provided on the banks is that they show that we can miss an important point in some of the analysis on lending to SMEs, which is that it is not just a case of providing bank lending to SMEs, it is a question of repairing the balance sheets of SMEs. An important element that must be introduced on a more system-wide basis is the provision of equity to repair balance sheets that are broken. Having the equity available will allow the banks to make lending decisions. We should not allow banks to lend to bad balance sheets.