Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the situation in Iceland where a cross-party committee was set up to assess the role of certain Ministers in the country's economic collapse; if he would favour a similar process here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35025/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has already established a comprehensive framework of investigation into the issues that arose in the Irish banking sector, as set out by me in the Oireachtas on 19 January 2010. As the first stage of this process, two preliminary reports, prepared by international experts Mr Klaus Regling and Mr Max Watson and by the Governor of the Central Bank, and published in June 2010, provided a comprehensive and authoritative examination of the crisis in the banking sector in Ireland. These reports were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 9 June and were comprehensively debated at the time. The Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service had two separate and lengthy engagements with the authors and subsequently with me to provide a comprehensive airing of the issues raised in the reports and to discuss the next steps. Arising from this, the terms of reference for a statutory commission of investigation were approved by the Oireachtas on 8 July 2010.

The Commission was formally established on 21 September 2010 by Government Order and I appointed Mr Peter Nyberg as sole member of the Commission on 22 September 2010. The Commission will have six months to complete its report. The report of the Commission of Investigation will, when completed, be laid before the Oireachtas for further consideration as appropriate.

Separately, the Oireachtas agreed on 8 July 2010, to ask the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service to consider key policy lessons in relation to macroeconomic management arising from the report by Messrs Regling and Watson, 'A preliminary report on the sources of Ireland's banking crisis,' and to report on its findings by 4 November 2010. The Government is satisfied that this framework is fully transparent and comprehensive. It is intended that the report of the Commission of Investigation when completed will be laid before the Oireachtas for further consideration and action by an appropriate Oireachtas Committee.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Finance the redress, if any, available to small and medium enterprises, sole traders, farm enterprises and new start-ups who have been turned down for credit over €250,000 from banks participating in the National Asset Management Agency scheme. [34468/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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S.I. 127 of 2010 which established the Credit Review Office fixed the upper limit for reviews at €250,000. When the S.I. was being prepared, it was considered desirable to set a limit to the amount of a credit facility which could be reviewed so that banks were not faced with unlimited exposure to review. The fact that borrowers seeking larger facilities will usually have a better relationship with their bankers and are less likely to face unreasonable refusals was also taken into account. The Mazars review found that the average value of formal applications fell from approximately €90,000 in June 2008 to approximately €60,000 in February 2009 and the threshold of €250,000 was chosen to cover the vast majority of applications.

It should be added that the limit is for the particular refusal of credit and is not an aggregate amount. For example, a business may seek a review of a refusal of a term loan of €80,000 even if it already has outstanding credit of €200,000. The Credit Review Office is keeping track of the queries it receives about refusals over the threshold and only a handful have been received to date. I understand that the Office has been in contact with the banks and that Bank of Ireland is willing to undertake internal reviews of credit refusals over the limit and AIB is currently considering the issue.