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

I acknowledge the work of organisations such as IBEC, which recently published a piece of work on Irish businesses and helping them to export and diversify, and InterTradeIreland. All of the organisations in this area are doing a huge amount of work to ensure businesses are Brexit-ready. I would encourage any company, particularly those dependent on the UK market, that has not completed the Brexit score card or linked in with the local enterprise offices, LEOs, to do so.

On the rescue and restructure scheme, the Department filed for this scheme in August. Once approved, this scheme will allow for equity supports of up to €10 million to SMEs in severe financial distress as a consequence of Brexit. While I do not expect there will be a need for the State to provide rescue or restructure aid to companies in the Brexit context, this may well be the situation and so we need to have a contingency measure in place. We have made good progress with the Commission in this regard.

We are also putting in place another scheme which will make medium-term finance available for companies. We are also developing a longer-term business development loan scheme. A variety of schemes are being put in place in terms of access to finance, which will be a key issue for firms that need to diversify from the UK market and to develop products on the research and development side. A number of different initiatives are available. Last week, a new fund for small and medium businesses was announced by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland in association with the European Investment Bank, EIB, which will also make tens of millions of euro available to Irish firms at a low interest rate.

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