Mr. Mark Cunningham:

No. It was not guesstimated. It was based on a detailed look at the historical loan tenor of the book; the volume that would be in stocking loans; the percentage that would be in stocking loans; the percentage that would be for capital expenditure; and the percentage that may be for land purchase. Land purchase was excluded from the scheme, so we extracted land purchase from the figures. The average life of the loan book and the manner in which the loans had performed historically was taken into account with a view to coming up with what would be a suitable average life for the scheme. The historical credit losses we have incurred on those loans were taken into account. That was then used to come up with this loan-loss guarantee up to that 80% limit and the 12% cap to which Mr. Burke referred. All of this gave rise to the 2% subsidy that was arrived at in terms of calculating the loans under the scheme.

On the drawdown, unlike other SBCI funds which are capable of being redrawn, there is a hard stop on this money in that the money must be drawn down by 31 December. If the money is repaid earlier, the money here under the scheme is not capable of being redrawn. There is a finite life to the scheme. Hopefully that clarifies its nature.

There has been considerable discussion about tillage farmers. Over 70 tillage farmers have already drawn down loans under our scheme. Some 9% of our loans have been for tillage farmers and the average size of the loan for tillage farmers in the bank's case is €45,000, which is higher than the €31,000 average for the rest of bank's customers. I would not like members to be under the impression that tillage farmers have been excluded. Indeed, as a percentage of the overall size of the loan book as has been indicated, there is a proportionate level of drawdowns in connection with that.

Deputy Penrose asked about the margins and the average price. Margins and bank margins are a matter of considerable scrutiny and debate by analysts. Banks call out the net interest margin as a topic in their results and statements. In Bank of Ireland's case, we have a net interest margin on our lending of between 2.23% and 2.26% on our loan book over the course of the past 12 or 18 months or so. That figure is disclosed and given to the market at every reporting period.