Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand the strategic investment bank is with the five point plan somewhere in the ether. The credit guarantee scheme is welcome. As the Minister of State said, it has been open since 24 October. Can he give any indication of the application level to date?

The microfinance scheme set up on 1 October is welcome. I asked about that because there appears to be no promotion of it. Those of us in the House know about it and the enterprise boards are talking about it but what is the position in terms of the wider public?

I ask the Minister of State to react to the figures given to the finance committee some weeks ago.

The Minister of State has been trumpeting the figure of €3.5 billion all day but three weeks ago at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform AIB admitted that only €600 million of this is new lending. What are the views of the Minister of State on changing the format of Credit Review Office reporting? It reports on money approved as opposed to money actually drawn down, and a very significant problem exists in the banking sector whereby a loan is approved but the hurdles to be faced when drawing it down are bigger than what one would see in the Grand National.

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