Mr. Eamonn May:

Access to finance is a critical issue for all our exporting companies. As Mr. Ryan cited in his initial introduction, we are part of the State family and we work closely with our parent Department, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Action Plan for Jobs cites an action in respect of the establishment of a group to examine the area of export finance. Specifically for us, the issue is working capital for exporters, particularly in respect of pre-shipment finance.

Another aspect of the family is the wider group. Enterprise Ireland is a participant with the Department in the small and medium enterprise State bodies group chaired by the Department of Finance. We feed our view in terms of the challenges that our clients have around access to finance into that group on a regular basis. It involves a wider group not only ourselves but the National Pensions Reserve Fund, the Central Bank the Department of Education and Science and Forfás. There are nine agencies involved and the group is chaired by the Department of Finance.

There are two strands to the issue of access to finance. One is bank finance and the other is non-bank finance. Some good initiatives have been taken in respect of micro-finance for smaller companies at the micro level. That initiative is well and truly active now. Another initiative is the loan guarantee scheme which is managed by our parent Department and that is up-and-running too. Yet another is the recent National Pensions Reserve Fund announcement relating to restructuring and turn-around funds, etc. There is an active engagement going on in this area but from the point of view of exporters, access to working capital to support growth in future is central. For a specific cohort of companies we have an ask in respect of provision of bond facilities.

Reference was made to loan facilities. I assume the Deputy was referring to the European Investment Bank commitment of €10 billion to small and medium enterprises throughout Europe in the coming years. As one of the actions being taken by the SME Stage bodies group and the Department of Finance that facility is being examined closely to see whether it can be exploited in the context of Ireland to deliver some level of additionality to the marketplace in terms of finance in the economy.