Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. I refer to the availability of money, in particular for small and medium sized businesses. The Minister of State referred to a structure, or a mechanism, to make money available to small and medium sized companies. Will she elaborate on what is proposed in that regard because it is one of the big problems facing this country? To give her an idea of the problems we face, a friend of mine was involved in a project in France costing €20 million and was able to borrow €18 million in Germany at 3.85% fixed for ten years. The project has now finished and is yielding quite a good return. The same facility would not be available in Ireland.

I wish to touch on an issue raised by Senator Terry Leyden and which I have raised on a number of occasions in this House. On the last occasion I raised it, I proposed that two days per month be set aside in this House to deal with legislation and proposals coming from the European institutions. I have a very strong view on that having served in the European Parliament for two years, having seen the volume of legislation with which we must deal and, in particular, because Europe will now have a greater say on the issues affecting our financial planning, whether we like it or not. Will the Minister of State take that proposal on board?

I have seen proposals from Europe go through various joint Oireachtas committees but, unfortunately, those committees do not have adequate time to deal with major issues. It is time we looked at that. This House could play a very useful and constructive role in dealing with those issues. Is the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs prepared to support that proposal and to see how we could advance it further?