Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The best I can say is that it is a work in progress. The deleveraging is almost complete. If deleveraging was putting a brake on lending, that brake is no longer there to any extent.

We set targets for the banks. In 2011, €3 billion was sanctioned. In 2012, it was €3.5 billion. There is a €4 billion target for 2013. This is in the form of new or increased credit facilities to small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs. Both banks have reported that they achieved their targets in 2011 and 2012. The Credit Review Office, CRO, has supported this contention. Lending targets are imposed on the banks. They must submit their lending plans to the Department of Finance and to the CRO at the beginning of each year. They must outline how they intend to achieve their lending targets. They also meet with the Department and the CRO on a quarterly basis to discuss progress. The monthly management meetings with the banks also provide a forum for the issue of SME lending to be raised by Departments. We keep the situation under constant review. I will re-examine it but we examine it every two weeks and certainly every month.

Deputy Broughan asked about the targets. They were set down and I have supplied them to him. He also asked about salaries at Bank of Ireland. When Deputy Pearse Doherty asked about this matter, we went through it in considerable detail and I do not need to go through it again.

Regarding the speed of deleveraging, the banks were ahead of target for part of the year, but they are on track now and have gone below the 122.5% level. I do not have the exact percentages, but I am sure that we will have an opportunity to supply them to Deputy Mac Lochlainn again.

There is already a great deal of market-based lending. For example, Silicon Valley Bank is operating in Ireland and has put $100 million on the table for small IT companies for start-up purposes. The National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, has entered into bilateral arrangements with foreign investment funds that are specifically geared towards SMEs. Three funds of approximately €200 million each are operating. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is running a micro-finance scheme using a pool of money. The situation is improving and we will keep working at it, but I would like to-----

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