Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe the point the Deputy is making is that if we did not have to engage in fiscal consolidation, money would not be taken out of the economy. Equally we inherited an economy in which government spending was running ahead of revenue by 40% to 45%, which nobody would argue is sustainable. It is not possible to sustain expansionary fiscal policy on the basis of such high levels of borrowings. We certainly cannot do so when the only source of borrowing we effectively have is the troika. We do not have the option of fiscal expansion in that context. The issue of stimulating investment relates to the instruments the Government has been addressing. The strategic investment fund is crucial and the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, just outlined some of the ways that is being leveraged up through the NPRF. Overall, those funds represent approximately €2.5 billion of new non-bank sources of finance being made available to SMEs in the various formats that have evolved. That is part of the strategic investment fund. That is what the Government is doing to make it easier to access finance. The Deputy is right in saying the banks have not fixed this problem. There is a long way to go before we have banks fit for purpose in the context of funding SMEs and considerably more work needs to be done in that area.

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