Mr. Nick Ashmore:

It could have been an impediment. Unfortunately, these loans went out incredibly quickly. The timeframe was tight. From the budget in 2016 onwards, leading up to the launch at the end of January 2017, we promoted this as widely as we could among farmers. The Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, did a great job of making sure that all the farmers were aware. However, that meant that applications came in very rapidly after the end of January 2017 and that the loan scheme filled up very rapidly. Anyone who was not in that first batch had a limited ability to access the scheme.