A €12 billion plan for bank lending to credit-starved small and medium enterprises will be announced by the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan this week.
€3 billion will be provided by AIB and Bank Of Ireland to lend to various small and enterprises each year for 2 years.
Details of the plan will be presented to Cabinet on Tuesday where it is expected to be approved and released by the Finance Minister.
However the Chief Executive of ISME Mark Fielding says the proposal is not without its complications.
“It sounds good; the difficulty here of course is that it’s targeted at just the export sector” he said.
“These businesses are already supported by Enterprise Ireland”.
“I think it’s showing a lack of understanding of the business environment by the government in that they don’t see the interdependence”.
“How is an exporting company going to have its repairs and maintenance done, its general supplies, its sub-supplies from other small and medium businesses if they’re not going to be supported by the banks” he added.
