Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to deal with most of the issues raised. I will not stray into the mortgage issue. I will leave that to the Minister for Finance.

I will respond to the questions in reverse order. Deputy Mattie McGrath did contribute to the debate last night and I did try to address some of his concerns. The Deputy had to leave early last night as well and I did not get an opportunity to do a full wrap-up today.

The Deputy mentioned he has concerns about the legislation. This legislation amends existing legislation which has been in place since 2012 and was also amended in 2016. This is not new legislation that has popped out of nowhere. We are adding in new schemes to deal with the Covid-19 emergency situation under the EU framework, which will lead to lower interest rates and more finance being available to companies of all sizes. More important, for a man from Tipperary who is very concerned with producers, it adds in opportunities for producers, farmers and fisheries as well. That is the key. We are strengthening the legislation. We will be able to reach more people and, as I said, it will lead to cheaper interest rates, which we will monitor closely.

I accept that I cannot put the table of interest rates before the House. I accept the Deputy's concerns in that regard. We had discussions with the banks, led by the Tánaiste. Their focus is on getting a good quality product across a range of different offerings out to people who need this money. I do not share the Deputy's concerns. This legislation has been talked about since May and it was produced back then. We had to form the Dáil to bring it through. I have thanked the Houses for their co-operation in bringing it through quickly. I acknowledge that people waived their right to committee scrutiny because everyone recognised the importance of reaching SMEs with finance. We sometimes have to move fast in this House. The legislation is not dramatic. It does not change the legalities of the scheme. Rather, it makes it a much better scheme. It is a scheme that we own. The State gives this guarantee. We only give the guarantee to the banks. It is apportioned out to each of the individual banks if we agree with what they are going to do and if they are doing what we want them to do. If a particular bank does not decide to use the scheme in the right way, then it will not be using the scheme. That is fair enough. Customers will go somewhere else. The Deputy might dislike banks but I am sure he would complain if a bank announced it was moving out of a particular town in Tipperary because jobs and so on would be lost.

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