Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Private Members' motion tabled by Deputy Michael McGrath, which gives us an opportunity fully and frankly to debate mortgages and small businesses. Last week, when the Government was one year in office, there was a clamour from Fianna Fáil for this Government to take responsibility for its decisions. I will take responsibility for the decisions needed to get this economy going and I will stand over them in front of the people. However, I must remind people of what happened and how they were let down by Fianna Fáil. The Fianna Fáil Government allowed 100% mortgages, allowed no regulation of the banks and took a hands-off approach to the banking sector. As a result, we are dealing with problems with mortgages. I heard Deputy Ó Cuív make reference to the proposals he made before leaving office. He was in office for 14 years and it seems that all he did was make proposals and did nothing to deal with the issues before us.

Over the past number of weeks I spoke to local bank managers. I asked specific questions on whether they were generating money for new mortgages and whether they were lending to small businesses. I asked them questions in such a way that they could not only refer to changing loan arrangements with small businesses but had to reveal whether they were giving new business to small enterprises. Banks have now removed salespeople as key elements of the infrastructure. The salespeople gave out money freely but now we have lenders instead. Lenders were in place ten years ago and they used to analyse loan applications. When small businesses seek loans, they must have up-to-date accounts and viable business plans. That makes sense for any business. New businesses also have to put in capital, which was not happening during the boom. Money was given to anyone who looked for it.

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