Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Ashmore for his presentation. We had an argument at this committee a couple of weeks ago about the term of the loan and how it would affect the subsidy that was put in to the scheme. Part of Mr. Ashmore's presentation around the agriculture cashflow support loan scheme states "An interest subsidy of 2% is paid to the banks each quarter on the outstanding balance of the loans, which is paid in arrears." We got stuck into this with the Minister when he was at the committee a few weeks ago. We could not get our heads around whether there was a pre-determined split to the terms of the loan to ensure the subsidy equated to the amount that was available from the EU to subsidise the scheme. The vast majority of farmers who looked for this loan were looking for as long a term as possible. In my experience of farmers who applied for the loan, there was a concerted effort on the part of the banks to reduce the term of the loan. We can see from the information presented by Mr. Ashmore that 54% of the loans given out so far are for terms of under four years. This is key to the issues we had when the Minister was here and I would like to hear some elaboration on that. There is a subsidy paid each quarter to the participating banks. Were criteria laid down at the start to say that X amount of loans had to be over certain periods or was each case judged on its merits?

I am extremely disappointed at the numbers of pig farmers and horticulture growers who have used the scheme. Only seven pig farmers to date and six horticulture growers have participated. Both of these sectors have been under severe financial strain. In the future hopefully we would get a similar scheme to this one. If we do, we must examine the criteria because I very much doubt that farmers in these sectors did not try to get this money because both sectors are very heavily indebted. The criteria would have disqualified them. Much of that sector's debt would probably have been aged debt and they would not have been able to qualify. Those figures are disturbing. The amount of qualifying participants from both of those sectors is in single figures. Half of the money has been given out at this stage. Given the way in which the scheme closed up so fast, I would have thought that by the end of April, more of the money would have reached farmers' accounts. Is there a reason for the delay or is it purely administrative?

Do the witnesses have an indication as to further demand? The demand was strong and the appetite out there for the scheme was immense. The scheme was closed in a matter of weeks after being opened and €150 million was committed. Is there a handle on what would have been the demand or requests for capital under this scheme if the scheme was still open and being applied for? Is that figure available?