Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank met their requirements for dedicated pools of lending, as recapitalised banks. The core problem is that there has been a substantial de-leveraging in Ireland by the external banks which provided credit to Ireland. At the beginning of the decade, we saw a substantial increase in credit from these institutions. We are now seeing a substantial de-leveraging by them, with much less credit being advanced by them. That has reduced the overall amount of credit available in the economy.

The Government has established a clearing group to monitor the availability of credit for the recapitalised banks. That clearing group is chaired by a Government representative and includes representation from business interests and State agencies. It identifies specific patterns of events where the flow of credit to viable projects-----

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