Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I offer a cautious welcome to the Bill before the House. We all accept that SMEs are the bedrock of the economy. While I welcome the foreign direct investment that continues to come to Ireland, I am concerned at a macro level at Ireland's over-reliance on foreign direct investment. Anything that can be done to create a more robust long-term domestic sector, especially in the SME sector, is to be welcomed.

It is clear to anyone who has been talking to people who work in or run small and medium-sized enterprises in Ireland that they have struggled, in many cases, to get money at reasonable interest rates and on reasonable terms. This Bill includes a mechanism for a significant amount of money, up to €5 billion, to be provided at reasonable terms to SMEs and that is welcome. I am cautious for two reasons. First, neither this Bill nor any accompanying legislation addresses the demand for credit. It is a supply-side Bill. The overindebtedness of individuals and the SMEs is not addressed in this Bill - I would not expect it to be - but there is no accompanying policy to address indebtedness, an important point. Second, we do not have enough time to get into it, unfortunately, but the Bill appears to give significant sweeping powers to any Minister for Finance. The current powers introduced by the last Government give the Minister licence to put any amount of public money into the banking system. This is a dangerous power that should be repealed. While I do not have an issue with the Minister for Finance doing what is in this Bill, I believe there should be far stronger parliamentary and Dáil oversight of it. It makes me nervous.

I echo some of the comments made before about the process. I commend the officials, who gave a thorough briefing to the Technical Group and, I imagine, to the others also.

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