BANK LENDING:NO STONE "will be left unturned" to ensure small and medium-sized businesses have access to bank credit, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted.

However Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin claimed the Government’s approach “is totally ineffectual” and “the banks are looking after themselves and no one else”. He said many businesses “will not go through the credit review office for fear of retribution, for fear that they’ll be punished by the banks if they dare complain that they’re not getting fair treatment or access”.

Mr Gilmore said he and the Taoiseach met three banks just over a week ago – Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and AIB – to discuss access to loans for businesses and mortgage holders, co-operation with the Government’s employment creation strategy and the organisation of discussions at local and regional level between the banks and business.

The Fianna Fáil leader raised the issue in the Dáil after the European Central Bank this week pumped another €529 million into the EU financial system, bringing to more than €1 trillion the amount invested over three years.

Mr Martin said the three-year programme was described as a “game changer” but in reality “it has not filtered down to the real economy”.

Banks “are getting access to very critical finance from the ECB but it is clear the banks are far too rigid and far too inflexible”.

Mr Gilmore said he and the Taoiseach would have further meetings with the banks separate from ongoing official meetings and those of Ministers, but Mr Martin said the engagement with the banks “is wholly ineffectual”.

The banks were only looking after themselves. People “don’t want any more timid engagement. They want action. They want the funding that has been put into the banks through the State and the taxpayer and the massive amounts through the ECB.”

Mr Gilmore said that, “unlike the previous government, this Government is having discussions with the banks about lending to small and medium-sized businesses . . . there is nothing timid about it”.