Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This short, straightforward Bill proposes to give powers to the Ministers for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Agriculture, Food and the Marine to enter into certain agreements with the EIF. The purpose of this proposal is to facilitate the introduction of the future growth loan scheme, which will provide medium and long-term funding for small-to-medium sized enterprises in areas including the primary agriculture and seafood sectors.

I thank the Minister for introducing this legislation. It seeks to give powers to the Ministers for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Agriculture, Food and the Marine to enter into certain agreements with the EIF with the intention of setting up a new loan scheme to help businesses with the effects of Brexit. My party recognises the importance of supporting SMEs across Ireland and the particular need to assist them with the challenges Brexit will bring next year and in the following years. We are happy to support this Bill. I have some questions and would appreciate if the Minister could answer.

Will she outline how much is intended to be leveraged by the Government to secure the €300 million scheme and has she set any targets or estimates for the number of businesses that will avail of this scheme? I ask about this because the €300 million Brexit loan scheme announced last year has not been a success. It was announced in budget 2018 and has performed poorly. The latest figures, from October, show the uptake of the scheme has been poor. Just 224 firms have been approved by the SBCI and just 38 loans to the value of €8.5 million have been sanctioned. That means not even 3% of the total pot has been drawn down on this existing fund. Is this new €300 million future growth loan scheme which this Bill is aimed at establishing just a new renamed, rebranded one aimed at taking the bad look off the previous loan scheme? My colleague, Deputy Maurice Quinlivan, has raised this with the Minister, and asked if she has looked into why the uptake has been so poor. Is it as a result of too much red tape or the imposition of criteria that are too strict? Will she enlighten us? It is vital that we know before we jump into another scheme and make the same mistakes again. That would be an unacceptable error and mismanagement of public money and, therefore, the Minister needs to clarify that.

Small businesses are the engine of the economy, as they comprise 245,000 firms or 98% of all business across the State. They employ 927,759 people and contribute €66.1 billion to the economy annually. Sinn Féin was disappointed and underwhelmed by the proposals for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation announced in budget 2019. An allocation of just €8 million was made for funding to the Department, its enterprise agencies, and regulatory bodies, to assist enterprises to diversify in global markets and to meet the challenge of Brexit. This is a tiny amount when divided among all the different enterprise agencies and offices, and is dwarfed by what Sinn Féin proposed in our detailed alternative budget. We proposed an increase of €27 million for Enterprise Ireland alone to provide it with a record €300 million budget for the year of Brexit, while also providing €10 million extra to IDA Ireland, €2 million for InterTradeIreland, and €5 million for Science Foundation Ireland. We proposed a 50% increase in the digital voucher scheme and €2.25 million to develop our worker co-operative SME sector. As the engine of the economy, this sector deserves the required attention from Government and Sinn Féin recognised that fully in our alternative budget. We are committed to delivering that attention.

With regard to this Bill, we are happy to see a new investment avenue being opened for this sector. It is vital that with all of the threats that Brexit may bring to business that we think ahead and secure investments for those ordinary businesses which may be at risk. I thank the Minister for bringing the Bill forward and we are happy to support it.