Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin will support this important Bill. It is important for us to do whatever we can to help SMEs to access credit. Many of those involved with such enterprises have told us that they are unable to access credit at the moment. They are getting the run-around from the banks. I agree with Deputy Kelleher that the funds which are approved and made available have to be additional funds. There is no point messing around with funds that are supposedly available already, but which SMEs cannot actually access. Representatives of SMEs have made this point to us in one-to-one meetings and when they have come before committees. As the Minister of State is probably aware, the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation has been preparing a report on the cost of doing business in Ireland. The inability of SMEs to access credit and the cost of insurance are the key issues that are arising during our deliberations. Maybe we should look at different banking systems and not just at the pillar banks we have here. Something like the German Sparkassen banking model should be of interest to us as a way of making loans and finance available to SMEs more quickly.

The main aim of this very short Bill is to give the Ministers for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Agriculture, Food and the Marine the power to enter into certain agreements with the European Investment Fund. This power will allow the Ministers to set up a future loan growth scheme with the aim of providing financial support to Irish business in the run-up to and aftermath of Brexit. The role of the European Investment Fund, which was established in 1994 as a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank, is to support SMEs and help them to access finance. Access to credit, which is a massive issue, was raised by businesses and their representative bodies during the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation's hearings on the cost of doing business in Ireland. Small businesses are the engine of the economy. They exist in every local community. The 245,000 small firms in this country account for 98% of all businesses across the State. They employ 927,759 people and contribute €66.1 billion to the economy each year.

Therefore, the sector deserves the required attention from Government and we are very happy to see a new investment avenue opened up by the Bill. I hope the loan scheme is more successful than the previously announced €300 million Brexit loan scheme. Unfortunately, the previous scheme was not a success. The latest figures we received show just 38 loans to the value of €8.5 million had been sanctioned out of a pot of €300 million. The scheme simply has not worked. I hope this one will be much better.

I have a number of questions for the Minister of State. Has a review of the previous Brexit loan scheme been carried out to identify whether red tape, interest rates or strict criteria contributed to the poorer than expected uptake? It is important to ensure lessons are learned and that we move on from them. Is the amount of taxpayer money being leveraged similar to the amount that was leveraged for the Brexit loan scheme? Does the Government intend to establish any other schemes in addition to the future growth loan scheme that would be backed by the European Investment Fund in future?

Sinn Féin recognises the importance of supporting indigenous businesses across Ireland, especially given the significant challenge of Brexit and other outside external factors which may be thrown up for the country. We are very happy to support the Bill.

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