Loans for 500 acres a week approved in Bank of Ireland

Loan approvals for land purchase are running at about 500 acres per week in Bank of Ireland, said managing director Mark Cunningham, during the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine dairy industry discussion with bankers.

Mr Cunningham said, “The land purchase market is quite active at present, but the level of gearing on that land purchase tends to be very low.

"We are looking at somewhere in the order of 30% on average across the book in terms of the level of debt that farmers are taking on.