Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2019
143. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation following the announcement in budget 2020 of a transformation fund of €8 million for a no-deal Brexit scenario, the details of the monetary amount that will be provided according to financial instruments (details supplied) in tabular form. [42375/19]
View answerAs outlined in the Budget last week, the Government is putting in place an additional contingency package of over €1billion for Brexit supports for the coming year. This contingency will ensure that an initial provision of €110m will be available to my Department and our Enterprise and Regulatory Agencies to provide targeted supports to impacted businesses in the immediate aftermath should there be a no deal Brexit outcome. The provision will also allow for additional tranches of supports to be provided to meet actual needs as the impacts of a No Deal develop.
The Transformation Fund is one of the supports announced in Budget 2020. It is contingent on the outcome of negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union and will only come into effect in the event of a No Deal Brexit.
The Transformation Fund will be administered by Enterprise Ireland (EI). It is a grant scheme which is designed to support larger indigenous firms to transform their business to develop new products and processes, to achieve a step-up in levels of competitiveness and innovation and to assist in diversifying to new markets.
There will be initial funding of €5 million for food processing companies and €3million for non-food companies, for example, in traditional engineering sectors.
It is important to reiterate that this fund is designed to mitigate the negative impacts of a No Deal Brexit and will only be activated if no agreement is reached between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
