Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of the promised ten per cent increased lending capacity that has been made available to small and medium sized business by Bank of Ireland and AIB as required under the conditions of the bank recapitalisation scheme; if both banks have furnished the Financial Regulator with regular quarterly reports outlining the implementation of the increased lending capacity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35024/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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As part of the 2009 recapitalisation, both AIB and Bank of Ireland committed to providing an additional 10% capacity for lending to SMEs in 2009. In the supplementary documentation related to the transfer to NAMA published on 30 March this year, AIB were shown to have sanctioned lending of €2.5 billion in 2009 and BOI had a total of €2.5 billion actually drawn down. Both banks report to the Financial Regulator and to my Department on a quarterly basis on progress on SME lending. More recently, as part of the transfer of loans to NAMA, both banks undertook to make available not less than €3 billion each in both 2010 and 2011 for lending to SMEs. They were required to produce lending plans on how they would achieve this. Summary versions of these plans were published with the first quarterly report from Mr John Trethowan, the credit reviewer. These plans were reviewed by John Trethowan and the Department and were found to be credible.

Both Mr. Trethowan and the Department receive monthly progress reports from the two banks which allow us to monitor their lending to viable businesses in all sectors of the economy and in every area of the country. Both banks insist that there are no constraints on lending bar demand from viable businesses. To back this up, Mr. Trethowan has reported to the Department that both AIB and Bank of Ireland remain open for business and borrowers should use the Credit Review Office if they find this is not so.