Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 December 2019
135. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Finance the number and proportion of SMEs that requested finance from non-bank providers in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and if the same information will be provided for SMEs that requested finance from bank providers in tabular form. [53285/19]
View answerThe Central Bank of Ireland or the Department of Finance does not collate or publish loan level data for non-bank and bank finance providers in the State.
However, my Department, closely monitors developments in the SME credit environment, including the application rates of SMEs, through its biannual SME Credit Demand Survey. This informative survey series can be accessed through the Department’s website here:
https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/788135-credit-demand-surveys/
The SME Credit Demand survey is based on a randomly selected representative sample of 1,500 SMEs. The sample error for a survey of this nature is good and has a margin of error of +/- 2.66%, at a 95% significance level.
SMEs were asked in separate questions if they applied or made inquiries for bank finance and non-bank finance respectively. The proportion of SMEs that answered yes to these questions is set out in percentage terms in the following table.
|
Year |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
|
% Bank applications for credit |
35% |
32% |
26% |
20% |
26% |
25% |
|
% Non-bank applications for credit |
11% |
10% |
8% |
7% |
7% |
7%* |
*Preliminary estimate, to be confirmed.
