Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Yes, I will do so. Senator Mullins has again raised the issue of the IDA's regional strategy. It is a big challenge in that a lot of the companies coming here look for deep labour market pools. They are seeking city and university-type environments. The potential for the IDA to deliver on the 50% target is through examining expansions of companies that are already located here. PayPal is significant in that it was a Dublin-based company whose expansion was into the BMW area. That was a great part of that announcement. In addition, the IDA needs to look at smaller companies who would be more familiar with regional locations and more willing to commit to them.

Enterprise Ireland will work with local authorities on where local enterprise offices are to be located. The local authorities will obviously have a significant role in property solutions.

The Senator almost answered his own question on sole traders in that there is a serious gap there. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, is examining the matter. One of the terms of reference for the commission examining welfare is how we can deal with that. We must bear in mind that for PAYE workers, the employer's PRSI is give or take 15%, while it is 4% for a sole trader. The amount of money going into the pool is much larger, therefore, and there may be cost and contribution issues if cover is to be extended.

Senator Mooney raised the issue of the banks as did Senator Higgins who asked if they were restructuring loans as part of the €3.5 billion figure. While it is a feature, that is not to say that restructuring of loans is always bad. Some of the loan restructuring that is going on is important; it is not all to be rejected. We need to ensure, however, that the refusal rate is brought down. The latter rate has been surveyed at about 30% across SMEs, which is too high. The refusal rates which were down at about 2% in the heyday of the Celtic tiger, clearly were too low. We need to get those rates right and much work is being done in this regard. I cannot accept Senator White's suggestion to create a legal obligation on banks, as banks must evaluate risk by examining the cash flow and applying rules to that risk, with their own skin in the game, so to speak. The State cannot underwrite everything nor can it legislate for lending to small business.