This article is from page 6 of the 2009-10-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE proposed National Assets Man- agement Agency (NAMA) will do little to ease the pressures on small businesses opreating in areas like Parnell Street, Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen has claimed.
Deputy Breen was speaking was during the debate on NAMA in Dail Eireann where he warned that un- less credit begins to flow in the Irish economy many more small business-
es will go to the wall.
Deputy Breen, the party’s spokes- person on Foreign Affairs, cited the example of the Parnell Street trad- ers in Ennis when he questioned the Finance Minister Brian Lenihan as to whether “NAMA will make any difference to the traders on Parnell Street, or any other traders in this county or nationwide.”
He claimed that the majority of people in this country are against NAMA and that when it came to
dealing with developers “there is one law for young couples setting out to buy their first home and another for developers”. He also claimed that NAMA will do nothing to address the huge demand for social housing. “Credit flow 1s the life blood of any economy and in spite of statements from the banks to the contrary, many small businesses are being squeezed because they are unable to secure credit from their banks. I refer to the €54 billion being made available by
the European Central Bank,” said Deputy Breen,
He added, “The belief is wide- spread among Fine Gael members that many commercial banks – which have borrowed money at a rate of three per cent and which will now gain access to this money at a rate of 1.5 per cent – will repay their original debts instead of allowing credit flow to customers who badly need it. I will cite the example of Parnell Street in Ennis, County Clare. Ten business- es have closed there in the past 12 months with the loss of more than 50 jobs and there are 20 vacant premises on that street now. The question must be asked whether NAMA will make any difference to the aforementioned traders on Parnell Street or to other traders throughout the county or na- tionwide.”
In September, traders told a meet- ing of Ennis Town Council that Par- nell Street was “dying” due to a com- bination of factors including the poor condition of the street, lack of invest- ment, poor lighting, drainage and the overall impact of the recession.
Speaking at the October meeting of Ennis Town Council, Town En- gineer, Eamon O’Dea said the coun- cil was currently examining how best to deal with drainage problems on Parnell Street. He said that this would involve “substantial elements of work”.