Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion
1:25 pm
Mr. Dick Spring:
We are 28% ahead of the targets we set at the beginning of the year in terms of lending to the SME sector. We have also initiated a whole range of other incentives, including as late as last week with the European Investment Bank, which was here. We are promoting very strongly in the agri-sector which must build capacity because the milk quota will be abolished in 2015, so farmers need credit for that. We are supporting the Government initiatives - the temporary partial loan guarantee scheme launched on 24 October and the Microfinance Ireland Fund. We have several joint funds, for seed capital, development capital and social and finance capital, and the European Investment Bank fund too. We are trying.
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