Mr. Ed Farrell:

In answer to the point on the State-backed investment fund for SME lending, we would need the Central Bank to alter the rules to allow collective investment vehicles, into which credit unions could pool funds to be lent onward to SMEs. It is within the remit of the Central Bank to do this. We would need Government support, specifically from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, both of which we met between 2015 and 2017. There was a lot of initial interest but it waned and there seemed to be different priorities, such as the agri-loans provided for in budget 2017 for the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. Resources and expertise are needed for SME lending so pooling is required. Pooling would give us a better bang for our buck and make lending cheaper, as would be the case were risk assessment to be done centrally. Better decisions and cheaper finance would be good for SMEs.