Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Has nothing been learned that the banks are once again being put in the driving seat of a scheme put in place to guarantee the future of small businesses? I do not need to tell the Minister or his officials that small businesses around this country are creaking at the seams. There is hay rolling down streets for the want of access to finance by businesses. The Minister need not bother reading out the statistics supplied to him by the Department of Finance in regard to the Credit Review Office. Businesses on the ground are not getting finance. If they are, they are getting it at penury rates and conditions and only in respect of the re-financing of existing working capital. As such, this lending cannot be defined as new. While people are being trained and we are negotiating interest rates, businesses are laying off people and are unable to create jobs or access whatever demand exists.

When will this money be in the pipeline and when will a business be able to apply for money from the scheme? Is it fair to say it will be quarter one of 2013 before moneys are released under this scheme?

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