Ms Adrienne Murray:

The Chairman referred to charges. I emphasise that Microfinance Ireland does not impose early repayment charges on applicants if they are fortunate enough to be able to accelerate their repayments. We offer loans on a fixed-rate basis.

In many cases if people borrow at a fixed rate and redeem their loans early, a penalty charge will be imposed, but if people are fortunate enough to accelerate their repayments, there are currently no penalty charges attaching to an Microfinance Ireland loan. We already have some customers who are in difficulties and we are working with them but in terms of missed repayments by a customer who has a difficulty, we do not impose any charges.