Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I did not pose the question to pit one community against another but to find out if the Minister sees a role for similar new thinking for tackling poverty in urban and suburban areas. Does the Minister recognise the level of deprivation and poverty that is the daily reality for many urban communities? Does he recognise the need for radical new thinking to help city and suburban communities and the need for community based finance schemes above and beyond the good work done by MABS? Does he see a role for his Department in intervening to save communities from extortionate moneylenders? Does he see a role for the State in providing banking and financial services to those communities, either in conjunction with An Post or the local credit unions? Could the Minister, in conjunction with the Ministers for Finance and Social and Family Affairs, use their good offices to lobby the banking sector to accept its responsibility to provide a community banking service, which it refuses to offer at present?

The Minister sees himself as having a co-ordinating role in the community sector. This problem is one of the things that came out of the reports on the How are our Kids and Do the Poor Pay More surveys. Does the Minister agree that in common with many rural working class communities, people in city and suburban areas are facing huge challenges in dealing with the transition from the old economy activities to new ones? I can cite examples from my constituency where there has been a haemorrhage of jobs. There have been jobs losses in Gallahers, Coke, APW, Packard and so forth. The unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Many locally based manufacturing and electronics jobs are becoming part of history rather than providing secure employment.

Does the Minister accept that there is a need for new thinking? Is there a role for his Department and other Departments to come together to examine the banking issue? Moneylenders are putting people to the wall. Everybody accepts there is a problem in this regard but no solutions are being put forward. There is a role for the State in providing small loans these people cannot get otherwise. Will the Department examine this in conjunction with other Departments?

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