Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Exactly. For a small business, there will not be a ceiling that cannot be breached. If a company has export potential and there are only two people involved, they will be able to access the system through Enterprise Ireland.

To be clear, I have not said it will process the microfinance loans, and there will still be a "microfinance Ireland", as it were, that will make decisions on applications. The people who will help applicants put together the business plans will be local. They will not make decisions at a local level on loans or issue them. They do not have the authority. They will be one of the brokers, and others will include the likes of Inner City Enterprise in Dublin. These are people who work with start-up companies in high unemployment areas.

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