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

I assure the Deputy that the Minister is actively working with the Minister for Finance with regard to the potential for the business sector. We recognise fully that the potential of Ireland lies in its 200,000 small businesses. The banks have very much obliged to support viable companies. We have had excellent facilitation from the Credit Review Office, which has been very successful in a number of applications that had been refused by the bank. There is a better understanding where there would be risk of collateral security and the banks are very much obliged to take on board the guarantee given by the State. The most important micro is the microfinance fund. Microfinance Ireland assured me today that every Deputy will have a new promotional pack that they could leave in their offices so that people can see it when they come to them about microfinance, the personal loan guarantee and the rest of the suite of opportunities and engage directly with the banks because many people do not go through the appeal process. We want to ensure that they do and benchmark the 21 days after which the bank is duty bound to come back with a decision.

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