Madam, – Anglo Irish Bank could help the Irish economy right now.
Small businesses failing to secure loans from their own banks (despite their taxes bailing those banks out) should, under Government instruction to the banks: 1. Be issued with a letter stating the reason(s) for any loan rejection by that bank. 2. Be allowed, and indeed encouraged, to re-apply for that loan from Anglo Irish Bank.
Anglo Irish and the Government would then get the real statistics on loans sought /rejected, plus an insight into the support appetite provided by those banks bailed out by we, the taxpayers and business owners.
More importantly, the Government could then either instruct the original bank to issue the loan if it feels that that bank was being too risk adverse (and dictate the repayment terms) or, ensure that Anglo Irish would issue loans to those higher risk borrowers.
In this scenario, the government delivers, the banks deliver, businesses deliver and the economy delivers. – Yours, etc,