Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I join with my colleagues in complimenting Deputy Willie Penrose on tabling this motion, and I thank all Members of the House who contributed to the debate. The Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, spoke just now about the need for confidence. Unfortunately, what he had to say does not give a great deal of cause for confidence in the Government's handling of the problems facing small businesses. I refer to his description, for example, of the global economic crisis. He implied that the nationalisation of the banks by the United States Government and the injection of money into the economies of the United States and China by their Governments are problems. That is not the problem. That is the sound of other governments solving the problem, something that is in scarce supply in this country. If his only answer to owners of small businesses who are short of credit and are worried about whether they can keep going until the end of the year and into the new year is that the Enterprise Ireland mentor is at the end of the line, I am afraid that is not much comfort either.

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