Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I am glad to hear the Minister of State interrupting. He has come to life and I am glad to see that someone on the Government side has come to life. It is good. Stand up, speak and interrupt whenever you like.

The other area in which the Government could do something is that of credit, which was mentioned by a speaker on the Government side of whom the Minister of State did not take any notice but did not interrupt. Why does the Government not get credit flowing? It can do this. The Minister of State knows, I know and everybody else knows the banks are telling plain, straightforward lies about lending to small businesses. Speak to any small business organisation and it will state enterprises do not even bother going beyond a telephone call seeking credit because the banks have told them not to bother. The Government controls the banks and is in charge of every significant bank in the State bar the Bank of Ireland on which it has huge pressure to bear. What is it doing? It is conniving with the banks, and the hidden agenda is that the Government states the banks have set targets but the applications are not there so forget about it. This is how it works. However, this is not the case because anecdotal evidence and surveys conducted by ISME and other small business organisations show quite conclusively that credit is not flowing to small businesses and as a result no jobs are being created. It is in the power of the Minister of State and the Government to do this. Instead, we hear all about Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and all of the others.

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