Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Access to Finance for SMEs: (Resumed) ISME, IBEC and SFA

2:20 pm

Ms Sharon Higgins:

The banks have certainly made a commitment - and we have seen a great many changes in the banks quite recently - to put staff with the right skillsets in place. That has not reached ground level in all cases at this point. Different things are happening. Obviously the historic lending was asset based but the banks are moving to different models of lending and that requires a new expertise in the banks. We have seen progress but much remains to be done. Let me give an example. I will call on Mr. Chamney to elaborate on the whiskey industry.