Mr. Niall O'Donnellan:

As I already said, there is an agenda of action and change in the three primary banks which certainly acknowledge the issue and have in various ways made investments and efforts to address the issue. The things are major changes which require major changes within their systems to take place. In respect of foreign banks, from our perspective, our focus is on the needs of our clients. We are strongly of the view that there needs to be an improved response from existing banks located in Ireland. We are also very positive about other banks getting involved and supplying the needs of those clients. For example, the entry of Silicon Valley Bank into the Irish market is a very welcome development. This is a highly specialised bank which originated in Silicon Valley that is deeply experienced in lending and investing in software companies and the software industry. This is an industry worth over €1 billion on the indigenous side. Silicon Valley Bank has entered the Irish market with a view to providing facilities to some of our companies that have particular growth and export potential. We see that it will be able to co-operate with existing Irish banks but also compete with them. From a broader perspective, that is a welcome development. There are other overseas banks with a particular interest in some aspects of the Irish exporting sector.

We see it as a need for a richer and more developed ecosystem that includes all elements in competition and co-operation. The primary banks are particularly focused on the full range of companies in terms of size while typically many foreign banks entering our market might focus on the larger SMEs or the mid-caps. We think everybody has a role to play. For us, it is all about the needs of our clients and building up the capability of the various elements of the banking world to respond to those needs. The launch of the SME credit fund by the NTMA, which is a non-banking solution, is also part of attempts to build up a range of supports and credit facilities, both banking and non-banking, which meet the needs of our exporting companies and the full range of companies in the wider economy.