Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue is that given the nature of how peer-to-peer lending works the administration of withholding tax makes it virtually impossible for the sector to function. I ask the Minister to afford a degree of urgency to the work that his officials and the Central Bank are doing on this issue. I agree that we need a proper system of regulation. The Minister wants that issue to be dealt with before putting in place an appropriate system of taxation. I ask him to continue to engage with the sector. This is an important area. We need to diversify further the sources of funding that are available to SMEs throughout the country. The more competition we have in the area of credit the better value SMEs, as consumers, get and end consumers will get a better deal as well. I ask the Minister to step up the engagement and deal with this issue. In the short term, my concern is that the application of this regime will impede the further development and growth of the sector.

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