Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. The Labour group looks forward to engaging with him on very serious and important issues, particularly those relating to insurance and the credit unions, in due course. The Labour group in the Seanad will be supporting the Bill. In contrast with the previous major crisis the EU experienced, at least there is now a recognition - albeit belated - by Union's institutions of the need to respond on a scale that will have an impact.

We welcome the SURE initiative and the EIB pan-European guarantee fund, both of which will help those who have lost their jobs and support firms that believe they are viable but need liquidity support. In supporting the Bill, we need to query the Government's capacity and willingness to draw down funding under these loan guarantees. The additional borrowing will have an impact on our national debt. We are all to familiar with the obsession of some within the Government regarding the scale of that debt. The important metric should be the debt-financing payments and our capacity to meet these from tax revenues. However, that frequently gets lost in the debate. We want clarity on the Government's intention to draw down this funding. I urge the Government to maximise its access to the SURE fund. Failure to do so will condemn thousands of jobless people to an unnecessarily bleak future.

The second part of the Bill deals with the EIB pan-European guarantee fund. This is the second week running in which we have been discussing loans to businesses.I am deeply concerned that there is an ideological reluctance to countenance grants or equity-based grants by way of support, in particular to small and medium enterprises in this country. We know that the impact of being highly geared or highly indebted acts as a chill effect on businesses with recruitment, expansion and the labour share of income for workers within firms. We want to support the Bill with regard to accessing the pan-European guarantee fund but we want it on the record that domestically we need to see a greater emphasis on equity-based grants to businesses in Ireland.

Another important point also raised by other Senators today is the lack of certainty in the Bill around conditionality in the granting of loans to businesses, especially on specifics such as social, environmental, employment or training objectives. We need clarity on that. There is now an opportunity in the provision of loans to businesses for the State to see something in return.