Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh na finnéithe go dtí an coiste. Tá cúpla ceist agam i dtús báire. B'fhéidir go gcuirfidh mé ceist ar an tUasal Ashmore ar an gcéad dul síos. Could I ask Mr. Ashmore about the role of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI? I have met with it a number of times. The work it does is valuable. I understand that it is done with quite a limited number of staff. Could Mr. Ashmore address the committee in terms of the resources the SBCI has in terms of administering the fund? My next questions concerns agricultural loans by commercial banks that come from the SBCI. I have heard from farmers, including at a recent meeting with the IFA, that Ulster Bank has far more stringent criteria in terms of making these loans available when compared with other lenders. Does the SBCI oversee how the application process evolves? My understanding is that different criteria are used by different lenders. Some require nearly every single piece of documentation that could have passed through a farmer's hands over the past number of months while others are less invasive when it comes to documentation required. Is this something the SBCI oversees or does it just make the funding available and look at the results on the other side?