Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Brexit loan scheme, as of 12 October 2018, of the 262 applications received, 224 had been approved by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland as being eligible and 38 had progressed to sanction at bank level, to a value of €8.5 million. There is, therefore, a good stream of applications coming in and they are being dealt with. I am glad the figure has increased in the past month from €6.5 million to €8.5 million. The system is working and people are applying for the funding. At the same time, businesses have to consider whether they need the money. They obviously have to tie their decisions on the funding in with their plans, including expansion plans.

With regard to Enterprise Ireland's Brexit scorecard, almost 3,000 scorecards have been completed. This included 204 local enterprise office clients as at 15 October. Enterprise Ireland has approved 137 Be Prepared grants and 113 projects have been approved under the Enterprise Ireland market discovery fund, which is available to companies seeking to diversify into new markets. Eight Enterprise Ireland advisory clinics have been run, with approximately 590 people in attendance.

A total of 2,350 SMEs have engaged directly with the Brexit advisory service of InterTradeIreland, a cross-Border agency that supports businesses. There have been 619 applications for its Brexit Start to Plan vouchers, of which 514 have been approved and 105 are pending. Good work is being done by the agencies.

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