Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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186. To ask the Minister for Finance the current status of the proposed agreement with Germany to secure funding for Irish businesses from the German investment bank KfW. [13774/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Senior officials of the Department of Finance have already exchanged working papers on this subject with KfW and the German Ministry of Finance.  There have been meetings on this matter in Berlin, Frankfurt and Dublin as well as numerous teleconferences, most recently in the last week.

The NTMA and the Department of Finance are currently working on the detail of the debt products to be offered to the SME sector with a view to making them attractive in terms of both cash flow and accessibility to the sector.  As we are trying to ensure that any initiative that comes out of this process is as effective as it can be, we will be discussing approaches that meet the strategic objectives of  all stakeholders and ultimately facilitate lending to the real economy, in particular SMEs in Ireland.

The precise arrangements for the structure, level of funding and distribution options are currently the subject of the discussions between the relevant officials at present and will have to adhere to EU State Aid considerations.