Dr. Ailish Byrne:

I will address some of the points raised by Deputies McConalogue and Cahill without going back over the points touched on by Mr. Farrell and Mr. Buckley. Ulster Bank takes a long-term view of agricultural lending because agriculture is one of our key sectors. We support farmers through volatile income cycles. We introduced our weather fund in July to provide flexible credit to our farmers. I suppose we have a record of doing this in the past. In 2009 and 2016, when the sector went through other income issues caused by commodity prices and weather issues, we introduced our dairy farmer toolkit and a previous weather fund.

We take a long-term view of repayment capacity when we are lending. We do not look at repayment capacity at any particular moment in time. We look at farmers over a ten-year period by reference to the price of commodities, the cost of production and the cost of producing the various commodities.

Ulster Bank is processing a larger number of small loan applications in 2018 than it did in 2017. This indicates that there is an increasing demand for working capital solutions. The rates on these Ulster Bank loans are starting at approximately 4% at the moment.

A question was asked about the areas of the country in which we are seeing the most challenges. We are seeing a lot of challenges in the south and south east, in particular. There continues to be a real situation regarding soil moisture deficits in those parts of the country and in the midlands. Some of the most rapid expansion in dairy farming in recent years took place in some of these areas. The demand for feed has been much higher in such areas. Trying to meet that demand has been an issue. We recognise that every area has been challenged over the past 12 months. There was too much rain in the north west this time last year. Every area has been challenged, but some areas are not as challenged as others.

The pig sector has also been mentioned. Ulster Bank's geographical footprint means it has a large number of pig farmers on its books. This year's prices in the pig sector are very poor by comparison with this time last year. There has been a 43% drop in pig farmers' financial margin in the last 12 months. They are currently experiencing one of the lowest margins in the last 15 years. Over the years, we have worked with and supported pig farmers to develop and build resilient businesses. We will continue to support them through this trough as well.

We have had a number of new entrants to dairy farming over the past 24 or 36 months. We will continue to support such farmers. I often find it is over the first 24 to 36 months that issues arise for people who are involved in startup businesses or are changing enterprises. We seek to support people and get them through that period of time. It is the most important time to provide support. I think I have covered off the main issues relating to Ulster Bank.