“Farmers can meet face to face, the staff are there, but you have to make an appointment”, Bank of Ireland’s Susan Maher told a Wexford IFA meeting on Monday.

“You have to make an appointment to visit your GP,” she added.

Maher, who is Bank of Ireland’s agri-development manager for the south-east, and is also the current ASA president, was responding to criticism of the online application system in place for lending applications.

Farmers recounted waiting weeks for approval for loans, with Maher responding that many loans are approved within 48-72 hours.

Farmers were also critical of high overdraft rates, currently slightly over 8%. Maher said that an agri-line credit facility “somewhere between a stocking loan and an overdraft” was “top of her which list”.

She urged farmers to carefully choose the right finance option for their specific needs, citing examples where capital acquisitions had been made with stocking loans or from cashflow. In the same meeting, IFA president Francie Gorman said that no farmer should have to pay the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) next year if the assurances given by the current government hold up.

“We have been told that if you apply to have your land dezoned in 2025, even if the land is not dezoned, you won’t have to pay the RZLT in 2025,” Gorman said. “We have to take that at face value”.