Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am reminded of the words of Shakespeare, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be". Perhaps it would be good advice in respect of the parties involved. However, I take the point the Deputy raised. I do not think there is much difference between the approaches we take to the matter. My approach will be to assist, in so far as we practically can, farmers who are in that situation. We will impress on the financial institutions a requirement for forbearance. We do not know whomever the purchaser of the loans will be, whether it is a fund outside of the State or within it. The loan book has not yet been disposed of, but in the context of the overall loan sale there is a small proportion of vulture funds, and I accept that is a worrying development for any individual farmer who is in that situation. For that reason I wish to reassure those individual farmers that their legal entitlement in respect of the sale of those loans to a third party is not impacted in any adverse way and remains unchanged. As Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine I will work to try to ensure there is a satisfactory outcome through the forbearance we can extract from the bank involved.

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