Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

This proposal from the Labour Party is very practical and responds to real needs in the Irish economy and among small businesses throughout the country. Deputy Seán Sherlock has provided very clear evidence of the difficulties of small businesses. Last night, Deputy Penrose quoted from research carried out by ISME on the real difficulties facing small businesses throughout the country and the lack of funding for infrastructural projects, which are of such importance.

I refer to some of the points made by Fianna Fáil speakers tonight. Some comments were constructive and invited constructive debate. This motion is put forward in the spirit of a constructive proposal. However, as Deputy Michael D. Higgins stated, other Fianna Fáil Deputies used various types of sloganeering to hide behind the fact that its policy has basically failed and has not delivered the money small businesses need to create and maintain jobs in the economy. They suggested we were playing to the gallery or being populist and used such terms. What we are actually doing is responding to the people who talk to us every day of the week. One may wish to label that as populist or playing to the gallery but it amounts to responding to people outside this Chamber who do not hide behind the slogans that have been put forward by the Fianna Fáil backbench speakers.

Anyone who referred to the banks' ability to respond to these needs spoke in the future tense about aspirations. They suggested that, somehow or other, the banks that are being recapitalised and that have had billions of euro of taxpayers' money put into them will at some stage in the future hopefully come good. "Hopefully" was a word used, I understand, by Deputy Timmy Dooley. However, we cannot live on hope.

We must provide real answers and funding for businesses which exist but which are in trouble. The banks are so preoccupied with retrenching their reserves and putting right their balance sheets that they do not have the will to address the needs of small business. We need a clearly focussed bank the interest of which is publically driven and the purpose of which is clear. Naturally, there must be credible risk management in all lending but what is crucial about our proposal is the ethos and raison d'être of what this bank would be about. There will always be some risk with lending to business. However, that risk must be informed by a Government policy of giving impetus to new growth and sustainable jobs.

The current banks, even those we own or partly own, do not have the capacity to focus on the two crucial areas which require money, namely, infrastructural projects and small and medium sized businesses. These are the two areas requiring help and the Labour Party proposal is focused on this reality.

I refer to my own constituency and the family businesses there that are inter-generational. These are the businesses to which Deputy Seán Sherlock referred and which in some cases have less than ten employees and therefore cannot benefit from many of the Government schemes. They are also the businesses that the commercial banks have been told to invest in by Government. Deputy McGrath acknowledged the banks will have to be hounded to invest that money. I cannot envisage the commercial banks undertaking the painstaking work required to support small businesses to get them out of the difficult times in which they find themselves. The bank we propose will have as one of its clear objectives the requirement to address the needs of those small business of which we are all aware in our constituencies. Many of these are businesses that have been in place for generations and which are in difficult times at the moment but which could trade their way out of difficulty if only they could get the credit they need.

I refer to some other proposals. For example, a group of tradesmen came to me with a very good, viable proposal in respect of refurbishing houses to make them more energy efficient. However, they simply cannot get the necessary seed capital. These are the businesses the Labour Party proposal for a strategic investment bank seeks to address. Our party leader, Deputy Gilmore stated last night that it is focussed on getting people back to work.

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