Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One thing I learned was that when civil servants write replies they tend to be quite careful with the wording. The Minister's reply uses the phrase "SMEs" twice. Individual farmers are not normally referred to as SMEs. Could the Minister find out in the next two days whether farmers can access funding from the SBCI and write to me and other Opposition spokespersons with the information? The reply he gave to my question seems to be at variance with what he just said.

My second question was whether the Minister has started on the ex antereport, because I understand it is the first step on the road and if it is not done we cannot go anywhere. It was a very specific question. Has he commissioned the ex ante report? It is no good discussing EIB funds and their fantastic benefits unless we take the first step on the road. To say that money is available at competitive rates from the banks here, when the variable rates are crazy compared to what is available in Europe, shows that the Government has failed to deal with variable rates.

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