Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I would like to put a question to Mr. Fielding who may have followed the proceedings when Mr. John Trethowan of the Credit Review Office appeared before the committee approximately one month ago. I mention an interesting and surprising observation made that afternoon. One of ISME's recent quarterly reviews mentioned the difficulties being experienced by small and medium-sized enterprises in accessing credit. The view of the Credit Review Office is that the demand for credit among such enterprises is not as high as the media might be reporting.

The priority of many SMEs is not access to credit but paring down debt and adapting their business model accordingly. Are there any comments on that issue?