Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for his response. What we all want to see is new credit circulating in the economy. That is the reason I tabled this question. The real test is the amount of new credit that is drawn down. I take the Minister of State's point that the banks can only control the amount of credit they sanction but often sanctioning of new credit by the banks comes with such onerous terms and conditions that, in effect, it constitutes a refusal of credit and, in many cases, it is not a viable option for the customer to drawn it down. Other issues are the interest rate charged and the types of collateral requirements being imposed by the banks. Will the Minister of State re-examine this issue and as well as reporting the amount of credit that is sanctioned by the banks, will he report the amount of new credit which is drawn down? He partially answered a question when he referred to the amount of new gross credit of €2.3 billion in the first nine months of last year. That compares to the two pillar banks telling the Minister of State that they sanctioned €6 billion of new credit throughout the calendar year 2011. A much more meaningful measure is the amount of credit drawn down and put into circulation in the economy. I ask the Minister of State to re-examine that issue.

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