Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with Senator Brady. I agree with the majority of what Senator Bradford had to say about the common responsibility we all share in the current economic situation. I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this important debate on the economy. It is the key issue on the doorsteps, and this is the right place to debate those issues.

Jobs are being lost all over country and it is forecast there will be a couple of hundred thousand job losses this year, and possibly up to 400,000 job losses. There was a recent announcement in Donegal that 120 jobs will be lost to the county, albeit that they are being moved to Galway, following a decision by Boston Scientific yesterday. Other difficulties are being faced by employers at the moment as they lose jobs, especially within the small and medium enterprises. By these I mean hotels and small businesses that may not be part of IBEC but that employ locally. Those businesses are experiencing cash flow difficulties at the moment. I have discovered this from talking to employers and employees who are raising their concerns with me. The lending agencies that allow the businesses have cash flow, be it through overdraft facilities or loans, are simply not doing that anymore. They have withdrawn the overdraft facilities to small businesses, which is creating havoc. The one key thing is to provide liquidity to the SME sector, be it those who want to establish small businesses or existing small businesses. I am not sure how we can do that, whether it is through some Government fund or through the banks, but it is something we must do to bring liquidity back to those creating jobs.

There is a company in my constituency that wants to create 60 jobs. The State agency has provided funding to that particular company but it is having grave difficulty in liaising with the financial institutions because it cannot get its hands on a bridging loan. It is disgraceful if the banks cannot support jobs. If that is the case, then it will add to our unemployment figures. We have a responsibility to work through this and provide a solution.

There are advantages in the current climate. Oil costs have fallen, as have interest rates, and that is advantageous to those with mortgages. However, I hope that all the banks are passing on the European Central Bank interest rate reductions. A number of Senators spoke about electricity prices and I hope we see a reduction in those prices. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is working on that. It is imperative to bring down those prices because it would bring down the cost of living at home and the cost of doing business here. Capital investment by the Government is about €8 billion this year, or 5.3% of gross national product. That investment is important at this time because it will allow the Government to invest in infrastructure at a reduced cost while employing people as well.

There are 50,000 people employed in the financial services sector in Ireland. The majority of those do their utmost, but there is a small percentage who should bear some of the responsibility for the mess in which we find ourselves. Those people gave the wrong advice to customers while they were totally negligent in the way they implemented their own professional responsibility. Those individuals, and there may only be a handful, need to be taken to task. The public is looking for them to be taken to task and it is time that was done. The necessary information will have to be obtained but if individuals are shown to have done wrong, then those individuals in the banking sector should be brought before the courts and the judges can make decisions on how to deal with them.