Mr. Nick Ashmore:

I am limited in what I can speak about in terms of a policy delivery mechanism, as I am not a policy setting individual like the Minister. The scheme is being worked on by a cross-departmental group which includes the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Finance, and which works very closely with the European Investment Bank, EIB, and European Investment Fund, EIF. There have also been early discussions with the banks. We are limited in our ability to bring schemes to market by the market's inability to absorb more than one scheme at a time. We delivered the agricultural cashflow support loan scheme, then the Brexit support loan scheme and now we are in the early stages of working up and delivering the next scheme which, as the Minister said, is focused on long-term capital investment and finance. As with the Brexit scheme, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, will move to a system whereby it takes preclearance or pre-eligibility applications.