Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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77. To ask the Minister for Finance the targets that have been set by him for the pillar banks to provide credit to small and medium enterprises in each of the years 2011 to date in 2014; the degree to which these targets have been met; the types of businesses that have received such credit; their regional spread; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48870/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Government recognises that small businesses play a central role in the sustainable recovery of the Irish economy. To facilitate this, Government policy since 2011 has been focused on ensuring that all viable SMEs have access to an appropriate supply of credit from a diverse range of bank and non-bank sources. As the Deputy is aware, the Government imposed SME lending targets on AIB and Bank of Ireland for the three calendar years, 2011 to 2013. Each bank was required to sanction lending of at least €3 billion in 2011, €3.5 billion in 2012 and €4 billion in 2013 for new or increased credit facilities to SMEs from all sectors and regions. Both banks achieved these lending targets.

Although the targets were a useful policy intervention, since the beginning of 2014 the focus has shifted towards the collation and examination, on a monthly basis, of more granular data on the funding of the activities of SMEs from both AIB and Bank of Ireland, the wider banking sector and increasingly the non-bank funding sector. Having completed a process of deleveraging, both AIB and Bank of Ireland are now concentrating on growing their balance sheets.  In this context, both banks recognise the need to increase business lending in the period up to 2016, particularly lending to the domestic market, and have put on record their commitment to the SME sector. Both banks have recently reported increased year on year sanctioning activity for lending to the SME sector.

My Department and the Credit Review Office monitor the data received from AIB and Bank of Ireland on a regional and sectoral basis but this is commercially sensitive information and I am not in a position to release it. The Central Bank does not publish information on credit on a regional basis.