John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Feighan for sharing time and I commend him on the work he has done and the commitment he made to highlight the necessity of funding for small businesses. Small businesses in my area are under pressure from both sides. They cannot access money from the banks while, at the same time, they are being put under pressure by their suppliers because of the difficult times they are experiencing. Deputy Feighan has continually raised the cheque clearance issue. It is taking longer for cheques to clear nowadays and I know of business people whose cheques have bounced even though they had lodged money in their accounts. That is not good enough.

I met a shopkeeper recently who two years ago applied to the bank for money to upgrade his business and, thus, generate employment. He asked for €50,000 and he was offered €300,000. He was cautious at the time as he wanted to establish whether his figures would hold up and he did not take money. Last week he went back to the bank seeking €50,000 because the figures he presented two years ago had held up but his application was refused. That is also not good enough. Whatever has to be done to free up money for such individuals must be done. We regularly hear reports of companies closing with job losses of between 200 and 500 and so on but we never hear about the loss of one or two jobs in businesses. The individual to whom I refer would have created two new jobs if he had secured his loan of €50,000 because he hoped to provide a new service in his shop.

I was also approached by a farmer who applied to the bank for funds to restock his farm. He had been granted larger loans in the past and he could not keep the money back from the bank but it would not give him the money to restock the farm. I commend Deputy Feighan.

See this speech in context