Mr. Pat Farrell:

Mr. Trethowan has probably answered the question in respect of applications. I will revert to one point the Deputy made about microfinance. The increased rate of refusals suggested by the Deputy will not happen for the following reason, if no other. Banks are supplying most of the finance for the Microfinance Ireland fund. While there is a certain amount of risk-sharing with regard to the equity that is being invested in respect of the guarantee for the loans, effectively the lion's share of the financing will come through the banking sector. Effectively, the banks will be the primary source of finance for the Microfinance Ireland fund, as they have been for the Social Finance Foundation over the past number of years. However, I believe what Microfinance Ireland is doing constitutes an extremely important initiative on the Government's part because many of these businesses comprise one, two or three people and are fairly low in respect of formal business management or planning skills. That is not anyone's fault; it is simply a function of the type of business they operate. Therefore, their proposition to a bank to obtain money is more challenging than would be the case with regard to meeting the traditional criteria. Moreover, this was where the highest rate of decline was detected, because these are riskier enterprises. Effectively, a model has been developed to try to change that dynamic and hopefully - there is no reason to believe otherwise - the establishment of that structure, for which banks will supply quite a lot of finance, will help to address that issue. It is a particular challenge that has been identified in both the Mazars report and Mr. Trethowan's reports.