Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I share the Minister of State's wish that the SBCI would unlock any funds that are available and that we would get those funds to business. However, the difficulty is how we get them to business, given we are getting them through the existing pillar banks, which are not competitive. An Irish-based business will pay more for EU funding through COSME than a UK, Spain or Germany-based business because of the structure we have. If we instead had the SBCI operating in its own right, using those funds to lend directly to business, all of our shared wishes in regard to SME finance would be met far more quickly. I would also highlight that the latest ISME report on SME finance showed a weakening of access in the last quarter of 2015, a point we also need to be aware of. To have an institution that lends directly to business as opposed to lending in a wholesale manner is only fulfilling the commitment the Minister of State signed up to in the 2011 programme for Government.

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