Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

-----of the suffering caused by unemployed. As Deputy Tuffy stated, that is the human face of the recession.

With regard to the issues raised in the motion, it must be stated that there is still no flow of credit to small and medium-sized businesses. This difficulty continues to manifest itself and Deputies on all sides referred to it. Those on the other side of the House have expressed varying views as to how we might address this matter. Certain members referred to nationalising the banks, while others suggested that a bad-debt bank should be established. The Government decided to establish the national asset management agency, NAMA, to remove impaired assets from the banks in order that their balance sheets will look better and so that they might access credit in the international markets and extend this to small and medium-sized businesses. This is the route the Government has decided to take and I am sure its decision in this regard will prove to be correct.

To suggest or infer, as did many Deputies on the opposite side of the House, that we are simply throwing money into a black hole to prop up the banks is disingenuous. Members realise that the banks are impaired and are suffering. They also realise that access to credit and the flow of credit to the broader economy is fundamentally important.

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