Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this motion. I propose to focus on the problem of credit and cash flow for small and medium-sized businesses. Despite the many good initiatives, such as the microfinance scheme, introduced by this Government to assist existing business and new start-ups, there is still a problem in this area about which we are hearing all the time. Basically, this issue relates back to the banks in terms of them crucifying SMEs through overdraft and term loan rates. That is the reality. The banks need a reality check. Like everybody else, they need the economy to function.

Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are the businesses to whom we look in terms of job creation. The banks have been recapitalised and the banking system has been restored, but this does not mean it should be a case of business as usual. The banks need to assist people with their mortgages and to assist businesses trying to get up and running and create jobs. Not alone were the banks bought out by the State supported by the taxpayers of this country, but so was the whole banking system. The banks would want to remember this. It cannot be a case of business as usual. I support fully the Government doing all it can to bring pressure to bear on the banks and to keep them in line. As things stand, the banks are undermining the very goods efforts of all involved, including the Ministers for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Finance.

There has been much talk about mortgages and businesses operating on credit cards, in respect of which the APR is 22%. This is what is happening. It is ridiculous and unjustifiable considering from where we have come. We need a paradigm shift in terms of how our banking system works. It cannot separate itself from the social consequences of its actions and, now, the economic consequences in the case of small businesses.

See this speech in context