Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his good wishes. I look forward to working with him.

I want to raise a couple of issues arising out of the Minister's response. The Minister has missed his target in terms of the assurance given on passage of the Credit Guarantee Bill 2012 at the end of the previous Dáil term that the scheme would be up and running in quarter three. We are now into quarter four. I cannot understand the reason all of the technical issues to which the Minister referred were not addressed while the scheme was being negotiated and all the heavy lifting was under way. Issues such as training, briefing of the banks and so on should have been addressed in parallel with the legislative process. The Minister knew, given the Government majority and broad support of the House for the legislation, that it would be passed.

I would like to put this matter in context. While this training, briefing of the banks and so on is under way, the reality in terms of lending on the ground is stark, as set out by the Central Bank in its report of September last. I know there is an understanding in the Minister's Department of the seriousness of the lending situation. However, I fear this is not properly understood in the Department of Finance. They are either blind or ignorant of it. Gross "new" lending was down one third in the first quarter of 2012 versus the last quarter of 2011. Only Greece has refused more small business loans than Ireland during that quarter, with one in four businesses seeking credit in Ireland being refused in the past six months versus one in 28 in Greece. It is constantly stated that Ireland is not Greece. However, small businesses seeking loans would get an easier hearing in Greece while there is a continual faffing around here in terms of the introduction of the loan guarantee scheme.

I am incredibly concerned that it is being left to the banks to set the interest rate.

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