Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 7, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:“(5) The Minister will commission a report within 3 months of the Act becoming operational outlining how the Credit Guarantee Scheme can help make it easier for businesses that owe money to banks exiting the Irish SME market to refinance those debts with domestic institutions.”.

This is a repeat of amendments I proposed earlier. The original intention of the credit guarantee scheme when it was introduced in 2012 was never met. It was very clear from early in the scheme's life that it was not going to work. In particular, through no fault of the Minister of State's Department, we were left waiting for this legislation. In the meantime, a serious problem arose for businesses that were being forced to refinance their debts because their financial institution was exiting the market. They were being thrown to the pillar banks with little opportunity, or were being sold off to various vulture funds.

While the Minister of State has extended the provisions of the scheme to allow for that, I am anxious that this particular cohort would be the focus of some attention by those institutions promoting the credit guarantee scheme. I would like to get a sense of the scheme helping those businesses, and to see that they are actually left to the responsibility of one of the pillar banks as opposed to one of these funds that are entering this space. Commissioning this report and putting this provision into the Bill will allow us to assess that.

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