Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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I thank the representatives of each of the banks and Banking and Payments Federation Ireland for their presentations. There are many sweet sounding words. If I was a farmer listening to the witnesses today, I would not have any worries, but I know the reality of life on the ground is different. I was an agricultural consultant for many years and I heard this previously. I negotiated some significant loans and indeed some write-downs eventually on behalf of farmers in the 1980s. I am glad to hear about the suite of products. All the banks have strongly resourced agricultural consultancy or advisory functions, on which I salute them. We do not want to have a conflation because lending to agriculture is totally different from lending to other businesses.

Does each of the banks tailor a suite of products to be pitched at the individual farmer as opposed to a generic group of farmers? In the dairy sector as elsewhere, no two farmers are the same, just as the outcome of two accidents are never the same notwithstanding that people might say they had the same injury and attended the same doctor. That is not life. Any two farmers will have different skills, different technical abilities and different inputs. Is that where the banks are working in terms of it?

We are all aware of the volatility and the reduction in the price per litre of milk from 34 cent to 27 or 28 cent, or maybe even further down. We all know the Fonterra price of 20 cent a litre. We have done a lot of work through the Chairman and our colleagues, and we have listened to that. Have the banks looked at the likely outcomes for the world prices over the next 12 to 18 months? Farmers now have the freedom to produce, which is great.

The AIB presentation used a very wise phrase, "better before bigger". I am convinced of that. I have consistently sent the warning from this committee that I am scared of everybody heading to the hills and expanding like nobody's business. It has to be very rational, particularly for those getting into it anew. Whoever coined that phrase has his or her finger on the pulse.

Farmers will be faced with the super levy of €50 million, €60 million or €70 million. We would all like to magic that away but it will not happen. That is their problem going back to the mid-2000s. We have to deal with reality, whether it will be applied to individual farms or at a sectoral level. How will the banks deal with that?

There is always an investment cycle in terms of normal investment. Do the banks have something for that? Do the banks have products or options for people? For example, in 2014 there was a significant output. Unless the income-averaging principles apply, that is likely to lead to a significant tax bill for farmers. So there could be a confluence of factors that could eat up farmers' incomes and leave them with virtually nothing on which to live. The superlevy bill will need to be faced over the coming months or years. There is a likely price drop, a tax bill and then normal investment. Is there a suite of products to suit each of those in the aggregate?

Have any of the banks carried out an analysis of the investment likely to be required to achieve the 2020 targets? That is over the next five years so the banks should be on the ball on that. Mr. Farrell referred to the troughs and peaks and the need to look at it in the round. Have the banks prepared investment strategies given the likely level of investment farmers would have to make to achieve the 2020 targets, assuming all the other factors are built in at a discounted level to achieve that?

It is interesting. We would be delighted to get any written submissions the banks might have. Having written submissions is always very useful because we do not just ditch them; we actually review them later on.