Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There have been a number of cases where farm loans have been sold to various vulture funds and there is a fear of repossession in these cases. Can the main banks reassure us that everything possible is being done to ensure farm loans will not be bundled up and sold off where the farmer is making a genuine effort to come to an arrangement, as has happened in some cases? The IFA has launched an initiative on this recently and other farm organisations have been very active in this area in the past year or more. We sometimes see plots of farm land come up and sometimes the loans associated with them were not for agriculture in the first place but for other businesses but, given the relationship in Ireland between the family farm and land, there has to be at least some awareness of that on the part of the financial institutions. There needs to be some assurance that any farmer who is making a genuine effort to come to an arrangement and to work out a solution over time will be accommodated and will not see their loans sold off in this way.