Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

How will that be done in the short term? The Small Firms Association has made three suggestions to Government this week. It suggested the Government should establish a small business fund. I know we no longer have a State bank by which that could be done by the State. However, the Government should find some means by which a small business fund can be established so that businesses that cannot get access to credit through the commercial banking system, as it is not lending to them, can get access to these funds through the European Investment Bank. That is the first suggestion and it should be feasible.

The second suggestion is to follow the example of the British Government which has introduced a rule that all state payments to small businesses would be made within ten days. All invoices made out to a Department or State agency need to be paid within ten days. That has been done by the British Government and its example could be followed here.

The third suggestion is to establish a formal forum. Here is the problem: when the business organisations representing small business approach the banks to complain about them not lending or releasing the credit, the banks claim they are doing what they have always done which is to apply the rules. They need a forum to investigate the practice of what banks are doing with individual businesses and compare that with what they claim they are doing and indeed what the Government will probably require them to do when it makes its decision arising from the report it has received.

There is an urgency about responding to the proposals made by the Small Firms Association in order to save those businesses that would otherwise go to the wall this week or next week and give them some breathing space so they can get through Christmas and on into the new year.

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