Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

Because the Leader suggested I do so, I will use this opportunity to raise one issue with the Minister, that is, to discuss the benefits that are supposedly accruing to Irish businesses from their significant investment in our banks. From my point of view and that of the business people with whom I speak regularly, there have been few benefits, if any. We have invested €7 billion in Bank of Ireland and AIB, but one would have expected at this point that some of that money would have found its way down to small Irish businesses in the form of credit. It has not, however, and it is never likely to.

The best method for assessing how the business sector is being supported by our banks is simply to pick up the phone and talk to those involved in small business. I have been doing that regularly in recent weeks. If the Minister was to argue that a sample as small as this would not be an accurate method of gauging the performance of our banks, surely he should have regard for the words of ISME's chief executive, Mark Fielding, who said that 83% of Irish companies are finding it difficult to get credit. Mr. Fielding also said the Government should stop "pussy-footing around" with the banks and force them to free up this badly needed credit. Following the announcement of 460 more job losses yesterday, ISME reiterated its call for the banks to loosen their purse strings and free up credit for Irish businesses.

When I make contact with business people, the news is not good. I have heard nothing but despair, anger and a real sense of disillusionment with the way this Government has handled the banking crisis. Take,for example, the blocklayer I spoke to last Monday. He had not received one request for a quotation from last August until two months ago. To his surprise he then received six requests, mostly from young couples seeking to build their first homes. When he reverted to these couples with a quotation, he found that all six had been refused mortgages by their respective banks.

What about the retailer I spoke to last week who had an overdraft facility of €2,000 with a bank he had done business with for 20 years? He asked the bank to increase the facility to €5,000 so he could trade through the difficult months ahead. He was, of course, refused the facility and now faces the real prospect of closing a business that has been in his family for three generations. Or how about the announcement yesterday by one of the biggest car dealers in this country that it was to cease trading with the loss of 200 jobs? The owners of that company had employed a major accounting consultancy to produce a survival plan that would see the company trading back to profitability within three years. The accountancy firm believed the plan would work. Three different national car distributors with a combined experience of over 60 years in the motor trade, also believed the plan would work and they committed to a continued supply of cars to this dealer. However, our friends in the two major banks took a different view and refused to row in behind what was a credible and laudable effort to save 200 people from the dole queue.

I do not know how the Minister of State or I would expect anything different from our banks. Behind the soft focus TV ads with smiling families, soothing music and assurances that bankers are "on our side", one can see nothing more than the bottom line, the need to profit above all else. I do not believe for a moment that the needs of this State and its workers are foremost in the minds of these banks' board members when they sit down to discuss the future; they most certainly are not. If the Minister of State believes that Government-appointed directors will make any difference in these affairs, he is sadly mistaken. When one become a director, one's primary fiduciary duty is to the company itself, not to shareholders or fellow directors and most definitely not to the Irish people.

While our board nominees will be on the inside, they will not be able to report any information back. They will be more than aware of what is going on in the banks' boardrooms, but they will not be able to report it to anyone outside the boardroom, not even the Minister or the Minister or State.

When the Minister for Finance recapitalised our banks he secured a commitment to increase lending capacity to small and medium enterprises. Compliance with this commitment is to be monitored by the Financial Regulator. Will the Financial Regulator report on this commitment and, if so, when? We should already have had the first, comprehensive, in-depth report on the real extent of lending to small Irish businesses. I believe that such a report would not make for pretty reading.

As Mark Fielding said, it is time to stop pussy-footing around. It is time to force the banks to play their role in our nation's recovery. We need comprehensive and regular reporting on the level of banking support for Irish businesses. We also need legislation to allow Government-appointed directors to act in our best interests and to allow them to report directly to the Minister. We need real action and, most certainly, we need it now.