Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister and his officials. There is a great deal of motherhood and apple pie about all this. It is like the end-of-term report that many children will soon receive. I will focus on certain areas and outline what I would have said had I written the report. On the third country specific recommendation, can the Minister outline the Government's specific plans to reform our apprenticeship scheme?

I know it is not within the Minister's remit but as the Minister with responsibility for employment, I presume he has an input and an interest. We have fallen out of love with apprenticeships and we need to fall back in love with them for their part in providing labour market opportunities and as part of the preparation for potential labour demand in the market. I ask the Minister to explain the plan. In my view, a dog's dinner has been made of writing the report, CSR5, with regard to SME supports and access to finance.

The Minister is reviewing the credit guarantee scheme and the microfinance scheme which were the central planks of his reform measures. Will the review of the credit guarantee scheme happen before the end of this session? At what stage will it make it to the market? At what stage will it be available to those companies needing credit? I ask the Minister to provide an update on Microfinance Ireland, how much it has loaned and the Minister's plans. The LEO network is being launched. What targets are being assigned to the LEO network to drive microfinance?

The Minister referred to KfW and the new bank which was launched the day before the elections. I ask him to outline the legislative framework for that project. Was it discussed at Cabinet? I refer to an interesting remark made last night by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, at the Labour Party hustings that she hoped the announcement would mark the beginning of a jobs plan. I suggest the Minister might brief the Minister for Social Protection on the Action Plan for Jobs. The Minister wishes to encourage diversity between bank and non-bank financing. The members of this committee, from all sides, have really driven this issue hard. We have all raised with the Minister the issue of crowd financing and source financing. Are there any plans to take action on this issue? As a country, we are more dependent on the traditional banking structure than any other EU member state - we are dependent on two banks. It is extraordinary, in light of all the discussion in Europe and in the media about our tax arrangements, that any review of our country's employment and business policies does not reflect that discussion. Has there been any discussion at any stage during the interaction around these country-specific reviews about our tax policy for multinationals and for business support generally and for employment creation?