Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Bhí go leor gnólachtaí i dteagmháil liom le tamall anuas mar gheall go bhfuil an t-uafás éiginnteachta ann maidir lena dtodhchaí. Tá faitíos an domhan orthu nach mbeidh siad in ann iasacht ar bith a fháil agus nach mbeidh deontais ar fáil dóibh.

Sinn Féin has consistently stated since the onset of this crisis that these are extraordinary times which necessitate extraordinary measures. Many SMEs are starved of capital right now. The reality is that these businesses are the backbone of our economy and provide much needed employment in the most rural and remote areas in the State. They have, I am sure, contacted every single one of us to tell us they cannot cope with the onset of Covid-19. For many this also involves the changes they will need to make to their businesses in order for them to be in line with public health advice. These people, families and communities need to know we are doing everything in our power to ensure their survival. For many rural areas the survival of these small and micro-businesses impacts on the survival of communities.

One group of businesses that is gravely concerned about their livelihoods are the owners of bed and breakfast accommodation. The tourism industry has fallen to its knees in recent months. I spoke with one owner of bed and breakfast accommodation yesterday who told me she had not had a single knock on her door since March, meaning that she has had no income since then. A women to whom I spoke highlighted the fact that she was a pensioner and, therefore, was ineligible for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment. As I have said in the Chamber, people have told me they are working not as a hobby but because they have bills and mortgages to pay. They are unable to survive without this income.

A key issue for the owners of bed and breakfast accommodation is that they are non-ratable businesses because they are businesses which are run in homes. Therefore, certain grants are not available to them. Another owner of bed and breakfast accommodation told me it was estimated to cost in the region of €40,000 to make all of the necessary changes to be in line with public health advice. This person has a mortgage that still needs to be paid, no visitors are knocking on the door and grants cannot be accessed. The family told me they do not think they would be able to get a loan from a bank. Non-ratable businesses need access to grants and assurances in the credit guarantee scheme. Clearly, the scheme is there to assist businesses in acquiring much-needed capital so they can stay in business and preserve jobs.

Several problems with the scheme have been highlighted by my colleagues in recent days. Today I would like to draw the attention of the House to another issue, namely, the timeliness of the appeals process for SMEs that have had their initial applications for finance turned down. For many SMEs whose loan requests have been turned down by their respective banks, they will first have to exhaust their banks' internal appeals process before they can take an appeal to the Credit Review Office which acts as a type of ombudsman. It overturns, on average, more than 50% of the appeals decisions that come before it. Nevertheless, while it offers borrowers an independent review and, therefore, the right to an impartial appeal, this can be time consuming for many SMEs. Given our current predicament, many small businesses simply cannot afford to wait up to three months while they exhaust their banks' internal appeals processes before they can appeal to the Credit Review Office.

I ask the Minister to consider putting in place a mechanism which would allow SMEs which have had their requests for funding turned down by their banks to bypass internal appeals processes and be able to take appeals straight to the Credit Review Office, and that such a policy would remain in place for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. Furthermore, could the appeals fee, which ranges from €100 to €250, depending on the size of the credit involved, be refunded to the applicant given the current emergency? If this would put too much pressure on the Credit Review Office and would simply move the backlog from banks to the appeals process, could the Minister request that banks establish internal dedicated credit guarantee appeals teams that would be responsible for assessing appeals within a short turnaround timeframe? If an applicant is not satisfied with this appeal, he or she could bring the matter to the Credit Review Office.

I would be also interested in hearing whether the Minister, in the event he can proceed with this proposal, could also commit to ensuring the figures on the rates of refusals and declines for loan applications and appeals are published. This would alleviate a lot of the fears out there.

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