Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. Is it not the position that the provision of credit to the enterprise sector, particularly SMEs, is of vital importance yet many small businesses, including family businesses, are being denied loans that are necessary to keep the show on the road? They are struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet.

Notwithstanding assertions from the banking sector on the renegotiation of loans, one might as well try to get a camel through the eye of a needle. Why has the proposed loan guarantee scheme promised for the purpose of assisting small viable businesses not been put in place, subject to the quite proper constraints outlined by the Minister? Does the Minister agree a loan guarantee scheme would be an essential tool to enable credit to flow once again for small viable businesses and would be their salvation? Will he indicate why the Department of Finance has such an aversion, distrust and dislike, and why it displays such heavy handedness, in terms of allowing this scheme, which is in incubation for nine to ten months, to come to fruition?

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