John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

We should criticise them in particular for inviting in companies which, after meeting with their bank managers, go away with much less than they brought. That is unforgivable in the economic situation we are experiencing. It shows that we must understand we are all in this together. It is not just Government policy that will take us out of this and it is not just the banks on their own that will make that credit facility available.

The banks should expedite their engagements with the European Investment Bank to ensure we have the appropriate level of funding available for the SME sector. In recent times I met with the Small Firms Association and with other individual business organisations and people involved in business. I suggested to them that perhaps we should look again at county enterprise boards and see if, by way of policy some money might be taken from the National Treasury Management Agency and be made available to the boards. We must step beyond the box to ensure small and medium enterprises stay alive.

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