Mr. Declan Hughes:

We are keen to broaden out the range of participants in our guarantee schemes. We work closely with and it is a mandate we have given to SBCI to ensure it is working with the broadest range of providers. Significant work has gone in over the past year with the credit unions in terms of assessment of their loan books, capability, capacity assessment, etc. We are pleased we have an increasing number of credit unions participating in the Covid credit guarantee scheme and lending out to businesses. That is a route on which we will continue.

SBCI has a key role in helping to develop the capacity of the credit unions to work with SMEs. We obviously do so as well. Many of the credit unions would have a good reputation around the country in working with small businesses and microbusinesses. The issue is how can we support and scale that. These guarantee schemes are an important mechanism for doing that.

Microfinance Ireland works alongside the credit unions across the country. This would be for those businesses which cannot get access to credit from the other financial institutions. We are trying to develop the broadest mix of finance providers to ensure microbusinesses and SMEs have access to the finance they need.