Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 February 2023
40. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of businesses that have applied for loans under the growth and sustainability loan scheme date by county; the number of applications that have been successful by county; the estimated value or worth of the loans to date for each county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4972/23]
View answerThe €500 million Growth and Sustainability Loan Scheme (GSLS) will make competitively priced loans of between €25,000 and €3 million available to SMEs, including farmers and fishers and small mid-caps, for terms of up to ten years, with loans of up to €500,000 available unsecured. The scheme will target a minimum of 30% of the lending volume towards Environmental Sustainability purposes with the aim of encouraging SMEs to take positive actions in support of the climate change agenda. The scheme will be delivered by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) through participating finance providers.
A funding agreement was signed between the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Agriculture, Food and Marine and the European Invest Fund (EIF) in December 2022. This allows for the use of EIF counter-guarantees, thereby significantly reducing the risk of the guarantee to the state. The funding agreement is only the first stage in the development of the GSLS which must go through several further steps before it can become operational. Firstly, an Open Call must be held to allow finance providers to apply to become lenders under the scheme. This is due to go to market in the coming days but is required to remain open to applicants for several weeks. Further to this, each applicant must be evaluated not just by SBCI but also the EIF.
In addition to this, agreement has to be reached on the Green Criteria to ensure Ireland complies with the requirements of the European Investment Bank Groups' "Green Eligibility Checker." State Aid notifications must be submitted to the European Commission and the IT and operational builds completed in the SBCI and the finance providers themselves. This indicates the complexity of the structure of the scheme but businesses can be assured that all parties are working as hard as possible to deliver this important scheme as early as possible.
It is expected that several lenders will be going to market with loan products under the GSLS by the end of Q2, 2023. However, prior to this, I am pleased to confirm that the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme is now operational, with loans of up to 6 years and €1 million. It is currently available through Bank of Ireland with other finance providers to follow in the coming months.
