Ms Adrienne Murray:

They have assessors and they would have business mentors with particular skills but they do not provide input in terms of recommending the loan. They assist applicants with their application. They add the benefit of their local or sector knowledge. However, in terms of assessing the repayment capacity, they would assist on that but, ultimately, in terms of assessing the credit, that is the responsibility of Microfinance Ireland.

As Mr. Kilbane stated, it is important that we have a panel of external assessors. Some of them are also involved with the Credit Review Office. Where there is particular sector expertise or a geographical spread, in many cases we would feel that the only way to properly assess this is to go on a site visit, and we would use external assessors there. We would tell the assessor we feel there is something here that is not coming across and perhaps if he or she would go out to see the business, that would demonstrate to us, give us clearer comfort or line of sight around what is happening there.