Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first thing the Department has been doing is engaging extensively with business and working cross-departmentally to deal with the challenges posed by Brexit, as well as continuing to provide support for diversification, development and innovation. We have been working with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, to develop tailored and targeted supports to address the needs of businesses impacted by Brexit. We have the new Brexit loan scheme, which will provide affordable working capital financing to Irish businesses that are either currently impacted by Brexit or could be in the future. This is €300 million that will be available to SMEs employing up to 500 and it will be open to all businesses, not just to State agency clients.

I am also looking at the development of a longer-term business development loan scheme which would assist firms in long-term investing for a post-Brexit environment. All of the discussions with the Commission and other member states have centred around Brexit. Last autumn, officials of my Department initiated discussions with DG Competition to sensitise the Commission to potential difficulties likely to be encountered by Irish firms. This has been central to any discussions I have had with Ministers from the UK and, indeed, I raised it with Mr. Barnier when I met him earlier this year.

Much can be done within the existing state aid framework. As a precautionary measure, however, we recently filed a rescue and restructure scheme for approval under state aid rules. Once approved, this scheme would allow for grants or equity supports of up to €10 million to SMEs in severe financial distress as a consequence of Brexit. Our new loan schemes are also being developed in the context of EU rules. However, should the situation change, it may be important to negotiate some Brexit-related flexibility in state aid rules with the Commission. It is also possible that, if the trading situation worsened, it might be necessary at that point to make a strong case to the Commission that flexibility on State aid is needed. We are developing that case and working on it.

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