Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Bourke said that under AIB's commitment to achieving new norms, it wants to bring the figure down to circa 5%, or €3 billion to €4 billion. That tells me that AIB is looking to sell somewhere between €2.3 billion and €3.3 billion of loans through this proposal.

We can argue the toss and AIB is saying they are different. The figure of €3.75 billion is the figure reported in the media. In one breath, top bankers are getting bonuses but side by side with that, the bank is selling on farm loans and small and medium-sized enterprise, SME, loans. Those affected are extremely wary. The sale means that they are going into an unknown. It is hard to reconcile how the bank can justify bonuses when it could potentially be throwing some of these family businesses, farmers and SMEs - some of whom have been there for years - to the wolves.