Mr. Liam McLoughlin:

Deputy Lawlor also asked about young entrepreneurs and the bank's 16,000 start-ups. I do not have details on how many of those start-ups involved people under 24 years of age. However, the bank is very focused and would be in agreement with the Deputy that young entrepreneurs are the future. That is very much where we hope to provide support. We work closely with a number of the universities through the provision of banking facilities, including in relation to incubation units to support young entrepreneurs. As I have mentioned previously, the bank sponsored a number of entrepreneurs through "Dragon's Den". In this regard, two of the ten programmes are focused on second level schools. The programme featuring the universities is scheduled for filming over the next couple of months.

The bank is also aligned to a number of accelerator programmes to support young entrepreneurs trying to accelerate their way through businesses. We have a programme which we fund in Dublin and we are due to launch one later in the spring in Cork. There are a number of schemes relating to the younger entrepreneurs, but I do not have statistics on that space below 24 years of age.