Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My concern is that this mechanism is not as widely available as it should be. My understanding is that much of it is available through the pillar banks and that, as in the case of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, to some extent, there does not seem to be any great desire to advertise the take-up to SMEs. The interest rate quoted by the Minister is relatively high by European standards. Presumably, it has been designed to help the banks to gather more profit on their business. In areas on the fringes of Dublin or in rural Ireland there are many opportunities and sites that would allow for affordable and social house building, provided small or medium-sized construction firms could access credit. I appreciate that many of them have an impaired credit rating as a consequence of the crash and may not be in a position to access finance. If the Minister wants to make an impact on the housing construction figures which, notwithstanding all of the efforts made and the money allocated in theory, are actually very slow-----

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