Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 July 2018
77. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for the Brexit loan scheme announced in budget 2018 from counties Cavan and Monaghan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30089/18]
View answerI wish to ask the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for the Brexit loan scheme announced in the 2018 budget, particularly for counties Cavan and Monaghan, and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The Brexit loan scheme is a loan guarantee scheme for eligible businesses with up to 499 employees that need relatively short-term credit to address working capital challenges brought about by Brexit. It enables eligible Irish businesses to overcome temporary cashflow issues that might otherwise have adverse effects in the long term.
The purpose of the scheme is to support businesses responding to their Brexit challenges through innovating, changing or adapting to a Brexit or post-Brexit environment. These responses may include strengthening their product offerings, developing new markets to diversify their trade footprint, changing their organisational structure or developing new capabilities.
The scheme is open to State agency clients and to businesses that do not have any relationship with State agencies. Sole traders may also apply.
The scheme features a two-stage application process. First, businesses must apply to the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, to confirm their eligibility for the scheme. This application process requires businesses to use guidelines provided on the SBCI website to determine if they are eligible, and if so to complete the eligibility form. As part of the process, businesses must submit business plans demonstrating the means by which they intend to innovate, change or adapt to meet the challenges posed by Brexit. Guidance on completing a business plan is available on the SBCI website. The SBCI assesses the applications and successful applicants receive an eligibility reference number.
Successful applicants can then apply for a loan under the scheme with one of the participating finance providers. Participating finance providers are the Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Allied Irish Banks, AIB. Approval of loans under the Brexit loan scheme is subject to the finance providers’ credit policies and procedures. As part of its efforts to promote the scheme, the SBCI has participated in numerous Brexit-related events, including a recent event in Cootehill, County Cavan.
The scheme was launched on 28 March this year and to date there have been 12 applications in total from Cavan and Monaghan, with six coming from each county.
I suppose the Minister will find it worrying that we only have six applications from both counties at this stage. I appreciate that she is trying to take action that will identify where concerns exist and where measures need to be taken, and that she is putting measures in place to galvanise the businesses and enterprises in Cavan-Monaghan and protect them against a hard Brexit, which it certainly looks like we are facing. The €300 million Brexit loan scheme for SMEs was announced to much fanfare in the 2018 budget. Can the Minister inform the House how many businesses have applied for the SBCI to confirm their eligibility for the scheme? The Minister referred to it in her opening remarks. How many businesses received an eligibility reference number? How many submitted a business plan for the application process and how many loans have been approved nationally, particularly from the Border counties of Cavan and Monaghan?
As already stated, there have been 151 applications to the SBCI. Some 132 applications have been deemed eligible to seek loans under the scheme. They can proceed to one of the participating finance providers, which as I said are Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and AIB. Approval of loans is subject to the finance providers' own credit policies and procedures. To date, ten loans have been progressed to sanction at finance provider level. These loans total €2.49 million of lending under the Brexit loan scheme.
Those figures are extremely low. I am sure the Minister would have to agree with that. We have learned that just 122 of Enterprise Ireland's more than 5,000 client companies - that is, just 2% of the total - have availed of the agency's Be Prepared Brexit grant. The figures the Minister read into the record will not instil any confidence that people are actually engaging with the packages that are being provided.
Perhaps they do not have the wherewithal. As we know, people involved in business are consumed with the job of running the business. It would appear from the figures the Minister has read out, and from replies to parliamentary questions submitted by my colleague, Deputy Billy Kelleher, that the uptake is alarmingly low at 2%, that is, 122 of Enterprise Ireland's more than 5,000 clients. These are staggeringly alarming low figures. What is the Minister doing to address this? My concern about Border counties is the same as that of the Minister and Deputy Brendan Smith. How will we grasp their troubles by the neck and get them involved and get them to take up the packages being made available?
A range of suites is available to businesses.
But they are not taking them up.
Can I say, without interruption, that businesses are engaging with Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise offices? To be fair, it is incumbent on all of us in the House to let people know. This is a simple brochure and it outlines all of the supports that are available. We should use every opportunity. In fairness to Enterprise Ireland, there are advertisements on the radio every day. We can only do so much. Once again, I use this forum to encourage businesses to engage with Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and the local enterprise offices. So far in 2018, Enterprise Ireland has supported 639 Brexit exposed clients. These supports included 50 innovation grants, 180 competitiveness grants and 100 market diversification supports. In addition, 180 Brexit exposed clients participated on trade missions in the first six months of the year. With regard to Brexit advisory services, Enterprise Ireland's seventh Brexit advisory clinic took place in the Aviva Stadium on 21 June, with more than 110 companies attending, 67 of which were Enterprise Ireland clients. I ask everybody to please use the opportunity. There are loads of supports and I ask companies to engage. That is the message I want them to hear. The help is there. They should engage with Enterprise Ireland, local enterprise offices or InterTradeIreland.
We have about two minutes left and I will give an opportunity to Deputy Durkan, who has waited here, providing he does not take the 30 seconds. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, to go straight into the response to the Deputy's question.
