Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Progress Update: Discussion with Microfinance Ireland
3:15 pm
Mr. Pat Kilbane:
I suppose the best way we can describe it is as follows. Clearly, we want applications, we want approvals and then we have to mind the loans that we have.
In terms of the loans we have put on the books already, we have had a credit event with close to 20% of those we have supported. That credit event can be anything, from just a mistake in having funds in the account to something at the very serious end. We are in the risk business.
For a unit of our size, all of these matters must be hand-held when they happen. We are in a collection process on a monthly basis. I suppose we would leave the Deputy with that thought, that we are in the risk business. For a company this young, we are not alarmed by that statistic because we have a risk appetite. We are in the risk business.
If we were not having some problems, the committee would ask,-----