Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Brexit loan scheme and the future growth loan scheme have very different objectives and were both established prior to the onset of the pandemic. The Brexit loan scheme was launched in 2018 to provide SMEs and companies with fewer than 500 employees with an option to access competitively priced working capital finance to help them to mitigate and react to the impacts of Brexit. It was intended that the scheme would be available for one year prior to and one year after Brexit. With the repeated deferrals to the Brexit deadline and the transition period, many businesses, quite naturally, delayed their Brexit preparations. The added disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that businesses have had to focus their efforts through much of 2020 on successfully navigating this unforeseen crisis. These factors have resulted in a modest uptake of the Brexit loan scheme to date with approximately €57 million in loans approved to 281 businesses.

In comparison, the future growth loan scheme, which was established to provide long-term lending to SMEs and also aimed to close an identified gap in low investment and underinvestment among Irish SMEs, has seen a rapid uptake from its launch in April 2019. The initial €300 million scheme was expanded by the Government through a further €500 million in available lending. There continues to be high demand for the scheme and to date €523 million of the €800 million scheme has been sanctioned for 2,601 businesses. It is very encouraging news that even at this time, so many businesses are seeing opportunities for expansion and are taking steps to invest in their businesses to ensure their longer-term sustainability and growth. However, Brexit will mean change for Irish businesses, and it is imperative that the option of providing access to working capital remains available. In this regard, I have extended the Brexit loan scheme so that it will remain in place through the entirety of 2021.

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