SEÁN KENNY TD KEEPING IN TOUCH Spring 2015
Dublin Bay North Constituency
STRATEGIC INVESTMENT BANK WILL PROVIDE VITAL SUPPORT FOR SMES – JOAN BURTON Tánaiste speaking at the launch of the SBCI strategy 19th February 2015 I am very pleased today to be here at the launch of this extremely important new product initiative from the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. Job creation has been at the centre of this Government’s mission since the start. Since the Government was formed we have sought to support the creation of new jobs, to attract investment into Ireland so as to create new jobs, and to support the retention of existing jobs. I have always known, and I acknowledge here again today, that we will be judged by the Irish people on our record in relation to jobs. That is as it Tánaiste Joan Burton TD should be. In recent years IDA Ireland has been spectacularly successful in attracting Foreign Direct Investment into this country. We need look no further than the Docklands to see the success of this strategy. But, I am very conscious that any jobs strategy must look beyond FDI. SMEs are and will always be the lifeblood of our economy. They exist in every town and many villages in Ireland. They are not only an essential part of our economy. They sustain local communities. They are an essential part of regional development. Without SMEs many of our towns and villages would become little more than dormitories feeding workers into the cities. I am determined, and the Government is determined, that this will not happen. Finance has always been a challenge for SMEs. They have often found it difficult to raise capital and even when such finance was available, it was often provided with onerous terms attached. Too many firms have had to depend on expensive and often unreliable overdraft facilities. This problem has been exacerbated in recent years by the financial crash and the fact that many foreign lenders have left the Irish market. As a result of the initiative which we are announcing today, many more SMEs will be able to access finance. They will be able to do so more cheaply than heretofore and on better terms. Our initial commitment is to make €400 million available but that is only the start. Some of the capital will be made available to the SBCI by The European Investment Bank and a portion by KfW. A further portion will come from the ISIF. This makes good on a Labour Party commitment agreed by Government to make some of the funds previously held by the National Pension Reserve Fund available to support Irish business. This availability of this funding comes at a vital time in the recovery of the Irish economy. All of the economic indicators of recent weeks have been encouraging - tax returns are up; unemployment is down; retail sales are much improved. Business confidence is rapidly returning. Our role as Government is to ensure that business men and women, including those in the social sector, get the support they need. An essential part of that support is access to finance on reasonable terms. Today’s initiative is one more important step in making sure that that support is made available.
CONTACT SEÁN KENNY TD
Address: Dáil Éireann, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 Email: info@seankenny.ie sean.kenny@oir.ie Phone: 01 618 3744 (Dáil) Mobile: 086 812 6340 Web: www.seankenny.ie facebook.com/SeanKennyTD
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Member of Oireachtas Committees: Transport & Communications; Justice, Defence & Equality; Public Service Oversight & Petitions