Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 February 2012
159 Deputy Dominic Hannigan asked the Minister for Finance if any of the banks in which the State has an investment have applied to take part in the European progress microfinance facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9326/12]
View answerThe European Progress Microfinance Facility is a facility which enables selected microcredit providers in the EU to increase lending, by issuing guarantees, thereby sharing the providers' potential risk of loss and by providing funding to increase microcredit lending. The microcredit providers may be private or public banks, non-bank microfinance institutions and not-for-profit microcredit providers.
The question of whether or not individual banks should decide to make use of this facility is an operational matter for the individual banks concerned. I can confirm that neither of the pillar banks has applied for the facility.
As the Deputy may be aware and in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, a Microfinance Fund to provide loans to small businesses is being developed by my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for establishment early this year. It is anticipated the Micro Finance Loan Fund will generate up to €100million in additional micro-enterprise lending which will benefit over 5,000 businesses over a ten year period.
