Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 9, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:“(5) The Minister will commission a report within 3 months of the act becoming operational outlining how the Credit Guarantee Scheme can help make it easier for businesses that owe money to banks exiting the Irish SME market to refinance those debts with domestic institutions.”.

The original intention of the credit guarantee scheme when introduced in 2012 has not been met. It was very clear early in the life of the scheme that it would not work. Through no fault of the Minister of State's Department, we were left waiting for this legislation. In the meantime, a serious problem arose for businesses that were being forced to refinance their debts because their financial institution was exiting the market.They were left to the mercy of the pillar banks or were being sold off to various vulture funds. While the Minister of State has extended the provisions of the scheme to allow for that, I am anxious that this particular cohort would be the focus of some attention by those institutions promoting the credit guarantee scheme. I would like to get a sense of the scheme helping those businesses and to see they are actually left to the responsibility of one of the pillar banks as opposed to one of these funds entering this space. Commissioning this report and putting this provision into the Bill will allow us to assess that.