Ongoing farmer difficulties with the country’s main banks will be raised with the Central Bank by the IFA.

The problems centre on farmer efforts to transfer business and personal accounts following Ulster Bank’s decision to exit the Irish market.

IFA national farm business chair Rose Mary McDonagh said Ulster Bank’s departure was creating serious issues for many farmers.

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard of cases where existing Ulster Bank customers are waiting literally months for an initial meeting with a new financial provider to set up a current account facility with them,” McDonagh said.

“Others are encountering obstacles in opening business accounts and overdrafts, even though personal accounts are held with the new bank provider,” she said.

The IFA also complained of a push by the banks to do all the necessary paperwork online.

“We will be engaging with the Central Bank to ensure this issue is closely monitored. We cannot have a situation where farmers have no functional business current account/overdraft to maintain on-farm operations,” McDonagh said.

IFA representatives are to meet with Ulster Bank later this week to discuss the phased exit of the bank from the Irish market.