Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad the Minister, Deputy Carey, and the Minister of State, Deputy White, are aware of the problems. They are correct to say that there are some wonderful ideas in circulation. I agree with them on the issue of credit. The banks have to play their part and support the people who are prepared to take a risk.

On the question of funding, I have been critical of the previous Leader programmes. I do not want to be hypocritical and say we allowed people to draw down funding without due care. That has to be done as we all have to protect the taxpayer's money. At the same time I am glad the Minister and the Minister of State have had meetings with their officials and the Leader companies. I ask them to revert to these companies. There are some very ideas in my county and people from other parts of the country come to me to tell me they have good ideas. They want to create employment in rural areas.

We need to try to get credit flowing from the banks if possible, through the Minister for Finance, and the Leaders companies need to speed up to try to get the decisions made on applications. It is important. We need to create as many jobs as possible. I believe in bottom up approach. If we do not create them in rural areas it will not happen. It is important to support local communities.

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