Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for confirming there has been engagement with both the Sparkassen bank and, perhaps, the German Government, which has been promoting this idea. In my experience as a Minister for over five years, the greatest impediment to this was the Department of Finance, so I am interested to hear the Minister of State say the same Department is now being co-operative. In my time as Minister for Social Protection, I fought very hard and quite successfully to prevent the closure of post offices in the teeth of a very difficult financial position that we inherited. I also set up a small micro-credit scheme operated by credit unions, which has been very successful in helping to keep people from the hands of moneylenders. I also established through the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, in conjunction with the Department of Justice and Equality a special help service for people in trouble with their mortgages and banks when it came to debt. All of that was accomplished without any very positive co-operation over a very long period from the Department of Finance. It was actually the contrary.

What is the timeline for this development? We are all aware the life of this Government may be short. One of the reasons rural Ireland is in some difficulty in the mean time is that its financial institutions are disappearing, particularly from smaller towns and villages. Without financial institutions, it is very difficult to have local small and medium enterprises develop. Where will they get credit?

See this speech in context