Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to the announcement of the €90m microfinance scheme on 27 September 2012, the total amount that has been to date extended to businesses under the scheme and the number of businesses to which that total relates. [9761/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Microfinance Ireland (MFI) began operating in October 2012. It is my intention that progress reports on the Microenterprise Loan Fund will be published via the MFI website microfinanceireland.ie and on my Department’s website enterprise.gov.ie on a quarterly basis.

106 loan applications were received by MFI up to today, with 31 loans approved to companies across a range of sectors. The value of these approved loans is €508,000 in total, and this will support approximately 80 jobs. There are 37 applications in progress. 38 were withdrawn, declined or are under appeal. MFI is currently actively promoting the availability of its loan fund and is focusing on a media campaign to raise awareness of the Scheme across the country. Other options for promoting the Fund are also being examined.