Mr. Declan Hughes:

The €330 million we envisage for Brexit will be essential this year for dealing with its impact. As the Senator said, the lending and borrowing requirements are likely to be significantly higher. When the credit guarantee scheme was introduced in the autumn of last year, it was initially for €2 billion. To date, just under €300 million has been drawn down. There are applications for significantly more than that. There probably still is capacity for between €1.5 billion and €1.7 billion over the coming months. We think there certainly would be a high demand for that in the context of reopening. Many businesses that will need additional working capital, investment and so forth will be looking for five-year to six-year money which will be available from the credit guarantee scheme. Between the two schemes, we have close to €2 billion available this year. As the economy reopens, that is what we envisage is needed.

On the demand side, there are different groups of companies which will need alternative sources of funding. From a Covid perspective, we would see high demand from retail and wholesale businesses, as well as tourism, hospitality and personal services, as they begin to reopen. They will need access to medium-term money such as five-year to six-year terms at low cost. Many providers are at or below the 3% rate which is very competitive from a Covid perspective. This gives these businesses time then to work through their new business sustainment plans and reopening.

On the Brexit side, we are also dealing with some of those businesses which would be dependent, for example, on foreign earnings. This would involve tourists coming in but also engineering businesses trading with the UK, food processors and companies, along with education and fintech services. We are picking off the broad base of enterprise between the Covid and Brexit schemes. They are not exclusive either. For example, in Enterprise Ireland's base of companies, 1,500 businesses are Brexit exposed but between 200 and 300 are both Brexit and Covid exposed. They will have joint exposure to the domestic market, as well as to Brexit. We do not want them applying twice. We want them to be able to come in with a business plan and access either the Covid credit guarantee scheme or the new Brexit impact loan scheme.

We will be in a position to expand the scheme further. That is why we have the headroom initially for up to €50 million. We are running with the €330 million and then we will see what other mechanisms and schemes might be needed over time. Other Departments may well be looking at the legislation to see how it might be utilised. For example, as I mentioned in my introductory remarks, it might be used to deal with climate action or other measures which might be useful.