Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has outlined what is being done generally through the public expenditure programme. My question, however, concerns the funding available in the private sector to complement the work ongoing through the European Investment Bank. Will the Minister tell us which banks are participating and how much each has drawn down or is capable of drawing down for onward lending to business, particularly the small and medium-sized business sector? Will he indicate the interest being charged by the EIB to these banks and what they, in turn, are charging their clients when they lend on the moneys? What is the period of the loans? People involved in the business sector are saying some of these loans are only available for a five year period, whereas the economic life of a project and the pay-back period are longer. If the Minister does not have the information to hand, he might convey it to me later. He has indicated that €850 million of the €2.25 billion investment in public infrastructural projects is coming from the sale of State assets. The difficulty in this regard is that the only revenue we can be sure of collecting this year in that process is the proceeds of the sale of the national lottery licence which, as the Minister indicated, will be received in December. I hope that funding is not being funnelled away from the national children's hospital project.

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