Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

The task force met last week and will meet again tomorrow to bring forward a first interim report, to which I certainly look forward because it is proactive and the people on the task force know what they are talking about.

The mid-west area also has the customs and border pre-clearance facility, which soon is to be established on a legislative footing, at Shannon Airport. Although it can bring another competitive edge to the mid-west region, which will be highly important, it has received very little attention either inside or outside this House. Up to 80 flights per day can stop to access their pre-clearance facilities and this will give our State agencies a viable competitive edge and an opportunity to sell the region. This is highly important and constitutes another demonstration.

On access to credit, people are very quick to say that Anglo Irish Bank should be allowed to go down the tubes, but what would they say to the bank's 250,000 deposit holders if that were to happen? Would they allow their money to go down the tubes too? Would they be happy to see those who owe Anglo Irish Bank money walk away scot free? Do they want to wipe it all away and let it all go? This day last week, Sweden had to take out an emergency €3 billion loan from the European Central Bank to stabilise its finances. We are not alone in having a banking crisis. The Government has acted responsibly and quickly in setting up NAMA to try to remove the toxic debts from our banking system and to allow credit to flow back to our small and medium sized enterprises.

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