Dr. Ailish Byrne:

To take Senator Lombard's questions first, on the term that Ulster Bank has extended, over 50% of our loans have gone out over the four year period. It is very important that the terms of the loans match the purpose of the facility so we have to make sure that if a farmer was buying stock in 12 months' time, the loan was cleared on the sale of that stock. Also, people were looking to use it to purchase feed or fertiliser for the 2017 season. It is good business practice on the part of the farmer that he or she clears that facility after the 2017 period and does not let it run into future years. As the Senator said, however, we have given terms up to six years for farmers who had used their own working capital in previous years to do capital expenditure work on their farms such as farm buildings, etc.

Ulster Bank did not look for security for any of these loans and no letters of security were sought from solicitors under this product. One of the definite rules around this scheme was that security was not to be sought and that a guarantee was provided by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI.

As to whether we are playing catch-up, as far back as 2014 Ulster Bank introduced a dairy farmer tool kit for our dairy farmers in recognition of a cashflow pressure they would experience with a low milk price. We put individual solutions in place for the pig and horticulture sectors because each individual farm business can be unique in those sectors. We did not have an over-arching scheme for them but we put tailored solutions in place for individual farm businesses.

Coming back to the tillage and pig sectors, we have lent significant volumes under the scheme to both of those sectors. In terms of the size of those sectors within the overall agriculture industry, and particularly the pig sector, they are the sectors that have got the maximum number of loans of over €150,000 over a six year period. They have been used to clear out merchant credit debt.