Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In page 4, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following:

“Interest and repayments

5. The Minister shall engage with the relevant business and agriculture stakeholders and representee groups regarding the application of favourable interest rates to monies loaned in accordance with this Act.”.

I note the Minister of State's earlier reference to the banking sector in which he referred to "because of what happened". Is he referring to when Fianna Fáil drove the economy off a cliff? The amendment is a fairly simple one. It provides that the "Minister shall engage with the relevant business and agriculture stakeholders and representee groups regarding the application of favourable interest rates to monies loaned in accordance with this Act."

The legislation to introduce this scheme provides for a broad framework for the provision of the moneys to be loaned out for the purpose of providing appropriate access to finance options to SMEs, including those in the primary agriculture sector, to address liquidity issues arising from the impacts of Brexit and to support investment in a post-Brexit environment. We all support that and it is exactly what we want to see done. However, many of the issues businesses encounter in accessing finance are not a result of what is in our legislation, rather of how these loan schemes are administered. A number of schemes have been established, particularly to help businesses overcome the effects of Brexit and Covid-19 but some are not being accessed for a multitude of reasons and that has to be addressed.

The same holds true for the moneys in this Bill that will be loaned. For instance, the Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme is guaranteed to the tune of €2 billion yet, to date, only €283 million has been loaned out under that scheme. Again, the Covid-19 working capital scheme which has seen €425 million in lending made available has had only €138 million worth of approvals made.

The future growth loan scheme has seen €679 million of the €800 million issued in loans and the future growth loan scheme expansion has seen €421 million out of the €500 million loaned out. These schemes are provided through the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and administered by financial institutions. It is clear the scheme, as administered, remains key to strong uptake and the success of the loans. How it is administered has a direct impact on who can access it and how many people do.

The crux of the amendment is that the Minister will engage with the relevant business and agriculture stakeholders and representative groups regarding the application of the favourable interest rates to moneys loaned in accordance with the Act. I hope this is done in any event, but this amendment is needed so we can at least have this discussion on matters such as interest rates, length of repayments and so forth.

I very much look forward to the Minister of State's reply because this is an important issue. Business owners and people in the agriculture sector of have raised it with me and I hope the Minister of State will be able to address it.

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