Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These amendments seek to add additional purposes to the Act such that a specific purpose of the Act would be the creation of employment. From a first reading of it, I was very sympathetic towards this but the legal advice we got is that as neither this legislation nor the SBCI is specifically designed to tackle employment issues directly, it was better not to refer to creating employment in the section. I agree with the Deputy that the creation of employment is a key goal here, but enabling growth through enhanced credit provision in the economy is the more accurate purpose of the Act and the more accurate function of the SBCI, and it is this economic growth which can enable the creation of employment directly. Consequently, I am unable to accept the amendments.

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