Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations and the Chairman for letting me in. I apologise for having to leave in a couple of minutes. I agree with everything Senator Davitt has said. I worked for a number of years in Nenagh which has been gutted because the rates burden on small businesses has been horrendous, even as giant retailers on the outskirts suck the town dry. It is a terrible shame to see a town that was thriving, and which still should be, drained of vital small businesses because of that imbalance. To be fair, there is a cross-party consensus on that issue.

The question I wanted to put to the witnesses was on banking. The presentation rightly pointed out that Ireland has much higher costs of borrowing than other countries. Why is that happening and what can be done about it?