Minister of State and Fianna Fail T.D. for Clare, Tony Killeen has confirmed that the Department of Agriculture met with Irish banks at the weekend to encourage Irish banks to extend normal working capital facilities to farmers.The meeting between Minister Killeen’s Department, the major banks and the Irish Banking Federation focused on the ongoing credit difficulties being experienced in the farming sector. According to Minister of State Killeen: “The banks recognise the current short-term difficulties faced by farmers and have made it clear that they are open for business. The are, however, encouraging farmers to initiate contact at an early juncture in instances where difficulties with regards to short term financing and sourcing working capital are envisaged.”
He emphasised the difficulties associated with poor weather conditions as well as low prices, particularly in the dairy sector, and said that “farmers require access to higher levels of short and medium term credit facilities to assist in weathering the current storm”.
The Junior Agriculture Minister added: “The Department of Agriculture will persist with its efforts to impress upon and facilitate banks in providing more assistance to their farmer clients at this very difficult time, particularly having regard to low product prices this year. The ongoing discussions with the IBF and the banks with regard to agri-sector issues including credit to farmers represents a significant component of the ongoing Government objective to free up lending on a commercial basis into the economy as a whole.”
It is anticipated that the ongoing discussions between the Department of Agriculture, the IBF and the banks will also compliment the work of the Credit Supply Clearing Group, which was established to identify credit bottlenecks to viable businesses and to seek to identify credit supply solutions. This group includes representatives from the main banks, business interests, including the farming sector, and state agencies.
