Strategic ‘bank’ scaled down

STATE plans for a job creation “strategic investment bank” are to be replaced with a “fund” as the pre-election promise is “difficult to implement in current market conditions”.

In a letter to Fianna Fáil TD, Billy Kelleher, after the issue was raised in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the fund is a more sensible approach “in the short term”.

The Government is considering increasing the sale of state assets if the troika agrees to allow a substantial proportion of the money to be used for investment. The fund will be used to for large capital projects and as a lender to small and medium businesses (SMEs), which will help to create jobs but will have less scope than the bank proposal had hoped.