John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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299. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 99 of 1 October 2015, if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding Microfinance Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35974/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that of the 683 applications approved by Microfinance Ireland (MFI) at 28^thSeptember 2015 that 593 applicants had drawn down funds as of that date with a total of €8,948,228 in loan value which had been drawn down at 28^thSeptember 2015.

The net operating cost of MFI since its inception until 30^thJune 2015 was €2.076million. Figures to the end of Quarter 3, 2015 are not yet available.

The number of applicants that were not approved as at 28^thSeptember 2015 was 449. This excludes 234 applications which were withdrawn. Different rates of interest is charged by MFI with 5% interest being charged for the Irish Best Young Entrepreneurs (IBYE) product and 7.8% interest being charged for applicants who are introduced through the Local Enterprise Offices and 8.8% interest being charged for direct applicants.

MFI does not take any collateral in relation to the loans that it provides. However, in order to ensure a level playing field, for company structures MFI requires a personal indemnity from shareholders and/or directors. The projected loan approvals due to be made available by MFI by the end of this year are €12.3m.

The Deputy is aware of the review of the Microenterprise Loan Fund which was published in April 2015. This review contained a number of recommendations aimed at improving the operation and take up of microfinance in Ireland. In this connection, a new Scheme for the Microenterprise Loan Fund has recently been approved and removes the requirement for an enterprise to obtain a bank refusal before seeking funding from Microfinance Ireland.

I am confident that with the recommendations being implemented and a new MFI communications and marketing strategy in place that MFI will further improve the take up of its product. This can already be seen through the most recent quarterly reports of MFI which are available on my Department’s website.