Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
2056. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his engagement with farming, agriculture, and fishing organisations to ensure the Brexit impact loan scheme is accessible for small farmers and inshore fishers. [41746/22]
View answer2057. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps that he is taking to introduce greater flexibility for repayments in the Brexit impact loan scheme to make it more accessible for small farmers and inshore fishers. [41747/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 2056 and 2057 together.
Access to finance is a critical business need and as one of the main economic drivers of our national, rural and coastal economy, it is vital that the agrifood sector has access to appropriate financing.
My Department regularly engages with stakeholders with a view to ensuring the availability of appropriate finance to meet the needs of farmers, fishers and food businesses.
The €315m Brexit Impact Loan Scheme (BILS) was launched in October 2021 to provide support to businesses, including farmers, fishers and food businesses, impacted by Brexit. Funded by my Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and delivered by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, the BILS is supported by a counter-guarantee from the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group.
My Department's funding ensures that up to 40% of the Scheme's lending capacity is made available to the agrifood sector, which is particularly exposed to the impact of Brexit.
Launched in parallel with the closure of the existing Brexit Loan Scheme (BLS), the BILS has a number of advantages over its predecessor including its availability to farmers and fishers and longer loan terms of between one and six years.
It already has significant flexibilities, including providing for loans of €25,000 to €1,500,000, with loans up to €500,000 unsecured, serving the needs of those without collateral including young farmers and new entrants. Loans are available through multiple lenders including the main banks and some credit unions.
Loan interest rates vary between participating lenders, but are discounted from standard rates. In addition, the BILS has also recently been expanded to provide support for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with the introduction of the COVID-19 Loan Scheme (CLS).
To date, 1,286 loans to the value of €161m have been sanctioned on the BILS of which 640 loans to the value of €51.5m are to farmers and 104 loans to the value of €18.3m are to food businesses. I believe this demonstrates that the terms of the Scheme are already sufficiently flexible as to be attractive to primary producers.
