Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his acknowledgement that our priority is to protect taxpayers' money. We also want to ensure that the banks which have made a commitment of €12 billion up to 2012 meet that commitment. Mr. John Trethowan, who is leading the group that is working on a credit guarantee scheme, admits there is a sector within the broader SME sector comprising start-up, high-technology enterprises with whose business the banks may be not as familiar as they should be. We are working with him based on the updated Forfás report to examine this specialised area which encompasses some 2% to 3% of the overall loan requirement.

Our objective is to ensure there is an absolutely focused scheme in place that will meet the requirements of some of these start-up businesses which lack the necessary collateral and which are encountering a lack of expertise within the banks. In the case of an environmental company selling into the Middle East, for example, there is no great expertise in the banks to assess the viability of its operations. I have asked Enterprise Ireland to involve itself with the banks in terms of training and assessment of these new start-up companies. These are highly technical enterprises which need credit in order to sell their wares abroad.

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