Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 February 2023
136. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of businesses that have applied for loans under the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme to 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. [8085/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme (UCGS) is now available to businesses through Bank of Ireland (BOI). The Scheme will see up to €1.2 billion in lending to assist the liquidity needs of SMEs, farmers, fishers and small mid-caps. Increased energy costs are driving increased costs in every area of business operations. Viable businesses need access to cashflow funding to ensure they can continue to operate, pay their employees and pay their suppliers. This type of scheme provides access to low-cost loans to meet these liquidity needs.
The relevant amendments to the Credit Guarantee Act were enacted in December 2022. The Open Call to finance providers to participate closed on the 27th of January 2023. These applications are being assessed and due diligence carried out by an independent evaluation committee. To bring forward the availability of the scheme, I pre-allocated €100 million each to the largest SME finance providers, BOI and AIB. I was delighted to announce the deployment of the scheme by BOI on the 30th of January 2023. AIB will follow in the coming weeks.
The UCGS differs from the Covid Credit Guarantee Scheme in that a business can now check if they are eligible for the scheme through the online Hub of the operator, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. This went live on the 27th of January 2023 and to date 245 successful applications have been completed with 88 applications in progress. This shows significant interest in the scheme by Irish SMEs. With the scheme only available for two weeks to the market through one lender, the figures of applications to the lender have been significant. As the scheme becomes established through multiple lenders, I will publish the monthly statistics, with breakdown by loan size, business size and by county on my Department’s website, as was done for the Covid Credit Guarantee Scheme.
