Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The matter has not come to me for final decision. I will make the decision immediately after the work has been done. The best performing schemes have been those in which there was no subsidy. There is a 15% subsidy in the UK scheme. The UK introduced a number of initiatives that fell through and I will not invest time or taxpayers' money in schemes that will not work. I do not want to create an expectation that is well beyond the remit of any loan guarantee scheme, but the work is almost complete and the matter will be brought before the Government for consideration and final determination very soon.

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