Mr. Martin Shanahan:

There has been a high level announcement but obviously there is a lot more detail to come. Based on what has been announced to date the fund will provide longer term loans at a lower cost via the existing banking structure, as I understand it, to SMEs. It is positive measure if it leads to SMEs being able to access lower cost debt for longer durations than they are currently able to access. The exact details of how it will operate remain to be seen.

I wish to clarify that the 19% figure from the ECB survey that I quoted does not just relate to businesses that have been refused a loan. It incorporates businesses that did not get the loan that they wanted at the cost that they wanted. Perhaps they were offered loan facilities but not at a rate that they were willing to accept or not for the full amount which they applied for them in the first instance.

It is clear from the ECB survey that the credit environment in Ireland appears to be improving. However, we are still some way off what one might regard as a normal environment if one take the averages experienced across the rest of Europe as normal.