John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

- recognises that up to 80,000 small firms employ approximately 800,000 people in every city, town, village and region in the country;

- recognises that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are heavily involved in emerging sectors in areas such as green energy, bio-technology, tourism, healthcare, agri-food and creative industries;

- notes with concern that 1,132 businesses have been declared insolvent since the start of the year;

- notes that the rate of business insolvency is higher so far in 2010 than in the same period in 2009 and 2008 despite assurances of the economy turning a corner;

- notes with concern that small businesses are still having difficultly accessing credit through financial institutions for a variety of reasons;

- recognises that the Government strategy of NAMA and bank recapitalisation has not produced a 'wall of cash' in credit for small business promised by the Minister for Finance;

- acknowledges broken Government promises to introduce a loan guarantee scheme for small and medium sized businesses;

- recognises that similar schemes in countries like Chile and Taiwan have resulted in increased lending to SMEs and delivered business growth and increased trade at little or no cost to the taxpayer; and

- recognises that in the aftermath of a banking crisis, a temporary loan guarantee scheme can support the goal of re-establishing strong and long lasting links between SMEs and banks and to encourage entrepreneurship;

calls on Government to introduce a loan guarantee scheme for small and medium sized businesses based on the following operational principles:

- risk-sharing between financial institutions and the State;

- auctioning of loan guarantee contracts to financial institutions;

- credit assessment carried out by the banks and the Credit Review Office;

- an emphasis on start-ups and export-oriented companies; and

- exclusion of financial institutions that approve high rates of non-performing loans."

I wish to share time with Deputies Clune, D'Arcy, Breen, Tom Hayes, Connaughton, Joe Carey, Doyle, Deenihan and Coveney.

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