ISME's new chairman, Don Curry, has wasted no time taking up the cudgels on his organisation's behalf against its old enemy, the banks. In a speech in Donegal last night, he opened by saying: "If you see a banker jumping from a top floor window, follow him as there is sure to be a profit in it".

Curry accused the banks of "playing fast and loose" with the Access to Finance Scheme (AFS). He said the £208 million fund, with a 6.5 per cent interest rate fixed over seven years, was being abused by the banks in their own interests.

"In spite of the shortage of working capital, less than £80 million of the fund has been invested in industry," he said. "Yet the associated banks have all issued statements that the fund is oversubscribed." Curry left his audience - at the Hyland Central Hotel - in no doubt as to the reason he believed this situation had come about. "The banks have contrived the situation because the bank margins on the AFS are relatively puny compared with normal bank borrowings.