Business: Finance
Northern Ireland Assembly
3:00 pm
Arlene Foster (DUP)
There is not only an access-to-finance gap, but, as I am sure the Member will agree, a growing credibility gap for the banks when they tell us that they are ready and willing to learn, yet, in our constituency offices, businesses and individuals tell us weekly that they cannot get finance or they are being told that their overdrafts are being withdrawn or whatever. That is why we felt that we had to intervene through the access-to-finance pieces of work. They are not the only things that we are doing. We are also in discussions with the banks to see whether there is some way that we can help in relation to HMRC, which is becoming more of a difficulty for a lot of small companies in the way in which they do their business.