Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Sometimes I think the Tánaiste and I do not live in the same country. I heard her reply, in which she said there is no doubt banks are making significant capital and credit available to businesses. That is just not true. I wonder whether she is spending too much time doing the clinic of Pat The Cope Gallagher in her constituency, rather than talking to business people about the realities of what is going on. Businesses are being starved of credit and, in particular, are being starved of working capital. Every business will not survive this recession but what I cannot tolerate is seeing viable and potentially viable businesses go to the wall because they cannot get credit and working capital because their overdrafts are being turned into loans.

It seems we have been talking about this for I do not know how long. It is nearly two years since the bank guarantee and since the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, promised us that credit would be extended to business and that there would be a wall of cash coming at us, to use his own words.

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