Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the availability of credit to families and businesses here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1392/11]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the NAMA legislation, both AIB and Bank of Ireland are required to lend €3bn per annum (covering the period April to April) to SMEs. In my statement on banking at the end of March 2010, I asked AIB and Bank of Ireland to produce creditable plans for the achievement of that target. The Deputy will be aware that my Department and Mr. Trethowan of the Credit Review Office 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. I also established the Credit Review Office to ensure that AIB and Bank of Ireland would lend to viable businesses. Mr. Trethowan has recently reported to the Department that both AIB and Bank of Ireland remain open for business and I would strongly encourage borrowers to use the Credit Review Office if they find this is not so.

Mr. Trethowan also found no evidence that banks have been indiscriminately refusing credit on formal loan applications. He also reported that no trade sector or geographical region was adversely affected by lending decisions

My officials are working on an ongoing basis with their colleagues in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, the Credit Review Office, Enterprise Ireland and Forfás to address access to credit issues for viable SMEs.

In relation to credit to families, I am not aware of any specific difficulties with access to personal credit from credit worthy individuals. The latest figures on mortgage lending published by the IBF/PWC for quarter 3 of 2010 show that while new mortgage lending continues to be low, it is still running at over €1 billion per quarter.