Irish farmers paying more than fair share of bank interest

In terms of lending, farmers are generally seen by many banks as being in the cohort of lower risk customers.

They are in the main conservative, lowly geared customers, who have strong track records when it comes to meeting repayments, and low instances of default.

Banks continue to lend strongly to them, with total farmer loan draw-downs over the 12 months to March, 2014 amounting to €587 million — out of a total loan book of €2.2bn to the entire Small to Medium Enterprise sector, according to the Central Bank.