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

Tá an tacaíocht ar fáil do na daoine agus do na fiontair ar an talamh. I will take a look at that review. I received a brief summary of it but I have not read it from cover to cover and I will do that over the Christmas break. We have a package of grants and loans. There is, of course, more demand for grants than for loans because grants are not repayable and that will always be the case. Businesses taking on debt need to make a decision on whether they want to do this. One of the reasons the future growth loan scheme has been so successful is because it is long-term money at a low interest rate for businesses that can afford to expand. These are businesses that can afford to repay loans. The other loans are for working capital, which is short-term lending to get over the hump of Brexit or the pandemic, and there has been less demand for them.

It might be the case in Gaeltacht regions that people are not getting the level of information they should be getting on what is available. If one takes the grant for customs, for example, just 300 companies, approximately, have availed of that so far. I will definitely look at that review to see if there is something we can do that is focused on Gaeltacht businesses.

See this speech in context