Results 10,061-10,080 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Yes.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Under the scheme, we extended the availability of the loan to the mushroom and tillage sectors. The Department keeps a record of all beneficiaries who would have benefited from de minimispayments up to now. It then had to keep track of whether the subsidy element that was available if this loan exceeded the €15,000 threshold over a three-year period. That is important. I would...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I would be very concerned about bank lending. We have come through quite a steep learning curve in terms of bank lending and inadequate paperwork. I would not be an advocate of there being inadequate or shoddy paperwork.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: To come back to Deputy Cahill's point, the scheme was for a maximum of six years. It did not state that every loan applicant was entitled to six years. The State's input was to subsidise the loan and address a market gap. It was not a question of the State getting into the banking business. It was unsecured credit, a subsidised interest rate, an option for interest only, for a maximum of...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: In so far as the Department or the State had an influence it was on the unsecured, the interest-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Within the terms of the scheme it was not a guaranteed six years. If the Deputy reads the terms he will see it states a maximum of six years.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I am not defending the banks and we will have to find out why when we get the information.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The funding that the State and the EU put into the loan scheme and that was used to leverage the fund at €150 million, at the subsidised interest rate, was to make it available to farmers without having the security that banks would normally have, for example, the deeds of the farm, and to have it at a competitive interest rate, unsecured, interest free for a few years. That was the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: There is also the fact that it was unsecured and the cost of that.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The terms were up to a maximum period. It was always envisaged that there would be loans from anywhere between one and six years. We have to factor in the cost of that over €150 million.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Of course. That is where the €25 million went and that is why the terms of the loan scheme stated up to a maximum of six years. It was always envisaged that there would be loans from everywhere between one and six years. When we get the full feedback we will-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I am satisfied that in the very extensive engagement we had originally with the SBCI and then through it with the pillar banks the product we delivered in all its terms and conditions was the best that could be negotiated for €25 million in terms of delivering it cost-effectively to farmers. We await the experience of the drawdown and will learn the lessons of the scheme if there are...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: As I said, until we get the figures on the drawdown we cannot answer that question but we always envisaged that there would have been loan terms of anything from one to six years.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Until individual farmers walked into the banks and made applications, we could not say there would be X number for one year, X number for five years and X number for six years. In structuring a loan portfolio like that we would have had to engage with the banks, as the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, did, and said that this is what we want to achieve. In terms of the profile...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I am familiar with loans that have been approved. I have had many approaches from people and, by way of information, I have to say it is not the Department that approves them but the individual banks. I have personal knowledge of loans being approved for constituents with terms of six years and others with terms fewer than six years. The full profile is there, but we await the detailed...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: In terms of the value for money, if anybody went into a bank and borrowed the same amount of money, as he or she did, at a term of one year or six years, he or she would have been paying much more.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: It is undoubtedly true that he or she is getting value for money.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: To be fair, how do I know who went into the bank on the main street in Ballybay or Letterkenny-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: -----and applied for what level of loan? We have to wait until we get-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseam, we are getting a subsidised interest loan, unsecured credit-----