Ms Geraldine Kelly:

There are approximately 200,000 micro-businesses with fewer then ten employees driving this country's economy and between them employing approximately 600,000 people. To reiterate the point made by my colleagues, we absolutely do not see ourselves as in any way a substitute for the banks. We are very targeted at a particular segment and a particular type of business at a particular point in time. Some 60% of the businesses we have supported are in operation less than a year and a half; we are very much dealing with early stage start-up businesses. As they move forward successfully, they become part of the overall economy. That is the context and background against which we would frame discussion of the targets and aspirations we have set ourselves in the future.