IN THE heady world of banking and finance, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction.

For nine gruelling hours on Wednesday, attendees at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Trade, Enterprise and Employment, heard submissions on the subject de jour: access to finance for small businesses. “Oh yes he did; oh no he didn’t,” seemed to be the catch-phrase of the day.

Public representatives recounted heart-rending stories of their constituents being refused money by their local banks; bankers refuted the claims, insisting that money was flowing out of their coffers.

The Central Bank’s Tom O’Connell offered some explanation of the contradiction: foreign banks in Ireland had closed up shop in terms of providing credit, while AIB and Bank of Ireland were lending.

It didn’t end the confusion. Sinn Féin’s Arthur Morgan seemed to capture the mood, as he said, somewhat defeatedly, to the Central Bank’s second-in- command: “How on earth do you expect anyone to believe you?”

Contradiction and confusion also accompanied yesterday’s announcement by Ryanair that it is cutting its winter schedule at Dublin airport by 20 per cent.

To Ryanair the explanation was simple: a €10 tourist tax and exorbitant charges at Dublin airport. “Insanely stupid,” screamed the press release.

Not so, said the Dublin Airport Authority.

Inboxes in newsrooms across the land soon “bleeped” with the sound of an incoming statement by the DAA.

While it “noted” Ryanair’s decision to cut services, “independent research” had proven that charges at Dublin airport were among the lowest of any “comparable” European airport. And besides, Ryanair’s own charges had “exploded”.

Ryanair fought back, with another ream of statistics to refute “the latest false claims from the DAA’s spin doctors”

The result? No clarity. It seems in the world of business, there is no such thing as black or white.