Mr. Maurice Crowley:

Although the joint committee's invitation originally came to the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, we thought it would be useful to bring representatives of a number of the banks which are working at the coal face of the agriculture sector. We welcome the opportunity to brief the committee on this very topical subject. Agriculture has always been a very important sector for our member banks and the banks have been very supportive of farmers during the years, through good and bad times such as the fodder crisis. We are joined by representatives of AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank, each of whom will make a short opening statement on the topic. We will focus particularly on what banks are doing to assist farmers in the dairy sector as the transition from milk quotas occurs, in terms of the capital expenditure they need to make and their working capital requirements, given the volatility of milk prices.