Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the panel from the SFA and thank it for its presentation. I note the very high response rate. A total of 855 member companies out of a sample of 3,000 responded, which is excellent. In its presentation, the SFA mentioned that 40% of businesses do not feel confident talking to their banks. What is the reason for that? Has the SFA monitored change over the past number of years? Mr. Noonan made an interesting point about approval rates. We have had this debate previously in that the banks are saying they are lending to all and sundry and others, including ISME, are obviously disputing that. Mr. Noonan made an interesting point that banks are making people jump through hoops to the extent that they will just not draw down the loan even though there is approval. This is a very interesting point that I would not have noticed before.

What is the uptake in respect of training and upskilling? Mr. Noonan mentioned relationship managers. I will repeat the question I put to representatives from ISME. Does Mr. Noonan think there was a better relationship between bank managers and customers back in the 1980s and 1990s and that they knew, regardless of whether they were in small towns, their customers, their history, their families and the risk involved better than they do now?