Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to support a good Senator in front of me, Senator Butler, in regard to rates on commercial buildings. Small businesses are under enormous pressure. The Senator is correct in saying out-of-town shopping centres could affect the life and soul of many towns throughout the country. Even the small towns have been sucked into the bigger urban areas.It is important for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Minister for Finance to find a way forward to get cheaper money for farmers and small businesses to carry them over at crisis time. There is no doubt that there is a crisis taking place in farming and that farmers need a certain amount of funding at different times of the year to carry them over. We see clearly our counterparts in Spain, Portugal and other European member states who have access to interest rates of 2% and 3% on short term or overdraft borrowings to tide farmers and small businesses over at crunch times whether it is to buy in stock or while they wait for cash crops to mature and be sold. I ask the Leader to arrange at some stage for the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to put at the top of their agendas the need for a special financial arrangement for farmers and small businesses, in particular to tide them over at crucial times throughout the year. That is what happens in certain countries throughout the year and I have no doubt that it can be done here with a bit of ingenuity.