Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We find ourselves in a time of unprecedented crisis. People have been on lockdown for weeks. Most businesses have closed their doors and continue to endure enormous financial losses. They do not know when they can get back to normal or even if they will survive. Hundreds of thousands of people are out of work and there are many uncertainties. Despite those uncertainties, a few things are very clear. This crisis is not going away any time soon and SMEs are going to be the major losers if we do not act immediately to save them.

The response from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation to this reality has been poor. It is shocking that, other than a few initial announcements made in the first couple of weeks of this crisis, no real solutions have been offered to SMEs almost two months later. The three main schemes that were announced are not fit for purpose. The credit guarantee scheme and the Microfinance Ireland loan scheme have interest rates that are too high for most SMEs to consider. The credit guarantee scheme allows for lending using criteria and interest rates set by the banks before this crisis hit. Microfinance Ireland loans have interest rates of between 4.5% and 5.5%. The future growth loans are designed for planning for eight to ten years into the future. None of these options reflects the reality facing thousands upon thousands of SMEs in the State at present.

If the Government needs proof of that, it does not need to look further than the Department's website which is tracking the take-up of Covid-19 schemes. According to the uptake tracker, as of 23 April only 209 loans had been approved. The uptake of the credit guarantee scheme is unclear because the figures provided for approvals go back to 2012, which is bizarre. Does the Minister have the figures for the number of approvals since the scheme was repackaged for Covid-19? Has she made inquiries as to what those figures are?

The sustaining enterprise fund has had one application according to the tracker. The SBCI Covid-19 working capital scheme has had 56 approvals. Microfinance Ireland loans have had only 153 approvals. The number of applications is higher than the number of approvals, but not by a very high margin. Just over 2,000 businesses have availed of these schemes. These are remarkable figures at a time when tens of thousands of businesses are in major difficulty.

Businesses are accumulating debt, have no cash flow and will fail unless something radical is done right now. The figures for uptakes should tell the Minister all she needs to know and should be a wake-up call. Other countries have managed to introduce interest-free lending options for small businesses within a week. The process was streamlined to ensure that businesses could have money in their accounts within days of making their applications. That is what we need to do. Some 80% of small businesses cannot make their quarterly rents during this period. That should send another alarming message to the Minister.

My questions are straightforward. Businesses need access to interest-free loans and grants, relief on overheads and bills and a debt write-down for those who have accumulated debt. What plans does the Minister have to ensure that interest-free loans or loans with very low interest rates are available to SMEs for the rest of this crisis and thereafter? What plans does she have to introduce a grant system for businesses which need access to cash now? Has she considered that the costs of reopening businesses should be grant aided? Will she introduce a moratorium on overheads, rates, rent and insurance to minimise the accumulation of debt by SMEs during this crisis? What plans does she have to allow for a debt write-down to ensure that businesses will not fail during this crisis?

I do not want any more spin, waffle or half-baked solutions. The figures for the uptake of the schemes announced clearly show that the proposals and solutions that have been put forward are not acceptable to businesses in the current climate.

They are not what they need. We have all spoken to people about this, and those with small businesses are sick with worry over it. They have been contacting me daily, including owners of gyms, hairdressers, transport companies and hospitality businesses. They are all terrified that their businesses are going to fail and their staff will lose their jobs. They need help now. The consequences for small businesses of not providing the solutions I have outlined are enormous. We have to avoid mass closures of businesses or the economy will not recover, at least for the foreseeable future. We cannot allow hundreds of thousands of people to remain unemployed. The knock-on effects on the economy and on people's lives will be dire. The Minister said that she wants to implement the right supports at the right time. This is now the time.

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