John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The loan guarantee is €450 million, the innovation funding is €200 million, there is also NPRF funding and €150 million is being put in from the innovation fund. Therefore, considerable funding is being provided. With regard to the difficulty in terms of opportunities for business, the microfinance fund is a good start-up fund. It was very successful in Dublin previously. People who were refused a loan were given a start-up loan under it and the fund will be operated from a centre of excellence in every county. Some €3.5 billion has been put into the two pillar banks. I have sought to simplify the application process within the banks. The obligation is on the applicant to appeal the decision if his or her loan application has been refused and to go to John Trethowan's office.

here is only so much we can do. We are benchmarking the banks on what they are doing. It is a matter for people to go through the application process and I went through some of them myself. If one's application is refused, one can appeal the decision within 21 days. The code of banking has been modified to ensure that applicants will get a reply within 21 days. If one's application is refused, one can go to the Credit Review Office.

It is very easy to come in here and say nothing is being done for small business. We can only encourage those in business to submit a business application, there is a due diligence examination of the application to assess the viability of the proposal. Banks will not give out money for projects on which they will not get their money back, and the Deputy knows that better than anybody. He has been on this case for some time making the same attack all the time, namely, that there are no funds available. The Government will put in the best part of €500 million, €700 million and €850 million in funding into small business during the next three years.

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