Business Supports
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Tony McCormack (FF), Offaly

I compliment the Minister of State and his Department on the work they have done on insurance. The cost of insurance was one of the main findings of the report. This is something that many businesses are under pressure with. I want to focus on one area that is particularly important for small businesses, which is access to credit. The report identifies limited competition in business banking and high borrowing costs as problems for small businesses. Access to affordable credit can decide whether businesses can buy equipment, take on another employee, invest in new technology or enter a new market. The forum recommends examining the case for a State SME bank. We already have State-backed structures that support business finance. Will the Minister of State ensure that this recommendation is properly assessed? More broadly, can we examine whether small businesses are actually getting enough affordable credit from the current system? We talk about helping Irish businesses to start, grow and become exporters, but access to finance is essential if we want that to happen.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29