Mr. Bernard Byrne:

It depends on the business proposition. Businesses that have significant collateral with real assets are one proposition. In the case of businesses with no collateral or equity coming in, there will be a need for more equity from them. We have the largest seed fund in the marketplace and we need to bridge part of that ourselves so we can provide some of the seed fund capital.

The issue is complex. There needs to be an evolution of this with which we would be happy to work and to continue to contribute to the debate. It should be very focused on meeting the needs of the lending proposition because one ends up supporting more lending propositions than one might otherwise because people do not have the equity in their business. I do not believe one can come up with a blanket answer. It needs to be thoughtfully considered to ensure we do not shoot ourselves in the foot due to the wrong answer.

We rate this as part of our participation in the credit supply clearing group. A sub-committee of the group is meeting to consider the options that might be available. When one looks at the various funds playing in the Irish market, there is quite a bit of investment in the €2 billion to €3 billion and above space. It is that €1 million to €2 billion space that we need to challenge ourselves about so as to find how we can provide alternative sources of equity funding.

We are confident we have the lowest level of fees and charges in the marketplace which we review constantly. We have a very attractive package for our start-ups. Any business start-up will have two years free banking fees, access to AIB’s iBusiness Banking, iBB, and access to merchant services of the debit and credit card service without an enrolment charge. This is the only opportunity for start-up businesses in the marketplace.