Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is mention in the report of the Sparkassen model of community banking. I ask the Minister to tell us the position of the Minister for Finance on that issue. I attended a great presentation on that recently and many people would agree that it is an interesting model to consider. However, there seems to be some reticence in the Department of Finance in terms of looking at that option.

I would refer the Minister to the document published by my party entitled A New Deal for the West. The big ticket item in that document is the rural proofing of all legislation that comes through these Houses, which would be very useful. If there was a statutory requirement to rural-proof all legislation, we would head off many issues at the pass.