Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Contrary to popular misconception, the Government's measures are not about the shoring up profits for banks and bankers. They are about maintaining a properly functioning and well regulated banking infrastructure, without which confidence in and the credibility of this country as a place in which to invest and do business would be lost, together with tens of thousands of jobs. Opposition proposals risk the alienation of foreign direct investment and the international credit markets, ranging from the Icelandic extreme of nationalising our banking sector by the Labour Party, to the creation of a zombie banking sector and their ultimate liquidation by Fine Gael.

The goal of this Government is to get credit flowing to viable businesses again. A further initiative in this regard is my decision to establish a credit supply clearing group. It will identify patterns of events where the flow of credit to viable businesses appears to be blocked and will seek to identify credit supply solutions relating to these patterns. Representation on the group includes the key banks, business organisations and State agencies, as well as departmental officials.

The banking sector is the recipient of substantial State support not for its own benefit, but for the benefit of the wider economy. I expect the banking sector to behave responsibly and to play a constructive role in providing credit to viable businesses.

As further support to small business, I recently introduced formal arrangements to reduce the payment period by Departments to their business suppliers from 30 days to 15 days. Departments have been encouraged to give priority to processing their payments and will report on their progress in complying. The commitment will have effect in respect of all valid invoices received on or after 15 June 2009. This measure should help ease cashflow difficulties for SMEs doing business with Departments. I am also looking at what regulatory changes might be required in the area of company law to address concerns that have recently come to light in the banking sector.

On foot of recent revelations about directors' loans at Anglo Irish Bank, I asked the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, whether he considered any amendments were necessary to the Companies Acts. His proposals are captured in the Companies (Amendment) Bill, which is currently on Report Stage in the Seanad. On the director's ongoing investigation of certain activities at Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Limited, I am providing additional staff to the ODCE from my Department for this complex investigation. The director has indicated that the investigation is progressing satisfactorily and that his office is working constructively with the bank, the Financial Regulator and other relevant parties in this matter.

The new enterprise stabilisation fund is further evidence of this Government's commitment to supporting business in the current challenging environment. The fund is targeted at vulnerable international trading companies to help them survive the current global downturn by supporting their drive to reduce costs and gain sales in overseas markets and to sustain employment. Sustainable economic recovery will be driven by enterprises focused on increasing their exports of innovative products and services in global markets. Since the launch of the fund in April 2009, there have been discussions with a wide range of companies to consider whether they are interested in developing business plans and in applying for the fund. Initial feedback from companies is that enterprise stabilisation funding would enable them to continue to operate and to sustain and build their businesses and ultimately grow in a very difficult operating environment.

Companies from all sectors are seeking support with the main issues of concern, namely, the sterling exchange rate, loss of sales, funding from the banking sector, competitiveness, construction industry and energy prices. Several hundred companies have been engaging with Enterprise Ireland on the fund and 60 companies are now being intensively assisted to develop definitive project applications to the enterprise stabilisation fund with a view to releasing such funding as soon as practicable.

Due to a market failure for some companies seeking export credit insurance, I asked Forfás and Enterprise Ireland, working with my Department, to undertake an analysis of the issue. An additional factor is that two other EU member states, Luxembourg and Denmark, have recently taken steps to introduce short-term State-backed export credit insurance schemes. The Forfás research established that the difficulties in obtaining commercial export credit insurance are closely related to the wider problem of credit availability for business generally. This latter issue is being pursued as part of the review of bank lending, being undertaken as part of the banks recapitalisation programme, and the issue of trade finance is also covered by the terms of reference.

In addition, the new credit supply clearing group that I referred to earlier will identify patterns where the flow of credit to viable projects appears to be blocked, which should help to address issues around trade finance and working capital that are all part of the problem. Following the Forfás research, which assessed the extent of the problem and associated issues, we have decided to initiate an accelerated tendering process to carry out forensic due diligence on the credit insurance market in Ireland. That tendering process is already under way and the due diligence will include an in-depth examination of the client databases of the main credit insurance providers operating in Ireland and will assess the extent and nature of market failure.

The due diligence will also assess the costs and impacts of possible intervention by the State in this area. While that is a significant and necessary step in the process, it is not, of itself, a decision to introduce a scheme. On completion of due diligence, the matter will be considered further. Issues such as default risk, Exchequer exposure to costs, value for money and the impact of any such scheme on business will be part of the exercise in hand, and will inform any future Government decision on whether to introduce a State-backed top-up export credit insurance scheme.

Ireland has a significant opportunity to secure a central position in the global environmental goods and services sector and has a growing company base to realise same. The sector is expected to grow due to a number of factors including, increasing waste generation, increasing cost of waste management, legal and environmental requirements, increasing demand for raw materials, and resource depletion. We are working hard to create the right conditions for the development of a new wave of entrepreneurial activity and employment opportunity in this growth sector. Unlike the proposals from across the House, we are working with private sector entrepreneurs to achieve that. That is why I have established the high level action group on green enterprise under the chairmanship of Joe Harford. It is tasked with advising on the right mix of policy measures necessary to ensure the development of a viable and sustainable green economy in Ireland. There is huge potential for the green economy to help Ireland meet its economic and environmental challenges. The latest estimates put the size of the global environmental goods and services market at in excess of €950 billion by 2010. That is a market from which Ireland must take a significant share and we can only achieve that by working closely with those entrepreneurs at the cutting edge. We do not want to create State-run monoliths, as proposed by the party opposite, in such a vibrant sector, which would crowd out private sector ingenuity, create dead weight and displace private sector investment to other jurisdictions. What we want to achieve is a comprehensive set of initiatives and flexible policy measures and supports that are responsive to the needs of a sector that has the potential to create much employment.

One of the Government's key priorities is to respond to the challenge of the rapidly increasing unemployment levels. The Government is determined to provide those who are unemployed with the necessary support services and training to enable them get back into employment as soon as possible. By providing those individuals with the opportunities to improve their skills and competencies we are not only increasing their employability but improving the skills level of the entire labour force, which will benefit us all in the years ahead. Since the end of last year the Government has taken a variety of actions to help those who are unemployed get back to work. In recent months we have doubled the capacity in the job search support, training and work experience programmes. In particular, the capacity of the job search supports system provided by FÁS employment services and the partnership-based local employment service has been doubled to 150,000 places per year. In addition, the number of people who can be offered training places under the auspices of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been doubled to 128,000 places. That includes a quadrupling to 92,000 places in short-training courses, which are occupation-specific and will give individuals specific skills so that they can compete for specific job vacancies.

In addition, I have launched initiatives such as the work placement programme, which aims to provide participants with six months work experience and the short-time training programme, which trains people who are on short-time working. In both cases, participants are allowed to retain their social welfare allowances while participating in those programmes. In consultation with the social partners, we are also working on proposals to promote job retention and aim to implement increased supports in this area. The Government is continuing to explore all possible initiatives and measures that will further increase employment opportunities and enhance the provision of training and education activation places. It is clear from the range of initiatives identified by the Government that we have been proactive and positive in addressing the concerns of business as it seeks to weather the current turbulence in the global economy.

Last December, in response to the much more challenging economic environment, the Government introduced A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal, Building Ireland's Smart Economy. That document set out a clear roadmap for Ireland's move back to economic growth and prosperity, with investment focused on those areas where we can build on our existing strengths, address weaknesses and make ourselves ready to grasp the opportunities when the upturn in the global economy begins. The Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal includes measures to secure the enterprise economy and enhance competitiveness, address innovation, environment, energy and infrastructure issues, as well as the pursuit of greater efficiency and effectiveness in public services and regulation. Our past success has been built on our agility as a small open economy to trade our way to economic success. Our policies are directed at assisting enterprises to be primed to take advantage of renewed growth among our main trading partners including Britain, Europe, the United States and Asia. The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009, ranks Ireland, out of 57 countries, first for real corporate taxes, investment incentives, foreign investor freedom and skilled labour; third for flexibility and adaptability of people and fourth for labour productivity.

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