Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Access to Finance for SMEs: Discussion

2:00 pm

Mr. Peter O'Mahony:

I will answer the first question. In terms of what Government could do, we have some great agencies, including Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia, that could engage more with the sector. Bord Bia would be a great example because food and food retail businesses would be very popular on our site. I suppose it is because the 200 lenders, as Senator Quinn said, can get behind those brands and support them. If someone is looking at Killowen Yogurt, which borrows through our site, they can actually see it on the shelves of Tesco, Marks and Spencer or Superquinn. They are really buying into the brand. In my case, I had never tried Killowen Yogurt before it borrowed on the site but it is the only yogurt we have in the house now. There are many Government agencies we could work with and help some of these companies because lending €100 to a yogurt company makes one an ambassador for life. My children now know the brands that borrow through LinkedFinance because their products are now in our shopping trolley. That falls across people who lend on the site but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it is great that we have two companies who borrowed on the site.