Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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74. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on the extent to which lack of working capital continues to be identified by indigenous small enterprises in the manufacturing sector and in the services sector as an obstacle to expansion; the degree to which he has brought these issues to the attention of the relevant authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8925/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Over the last five years the Government has worked tirelessly to ensure that the access of SMEs to an appropriate supply of financing from both bank and non-bank sources is improved and that all businesses have access to appropriate sources of finance to grow develop and expand. A number of key policy and legislative initiatives were developed and delivered since March 2011 with some being reviewed and amended as necessary, and these may be grouped as follows:-

Credit Guarantees

- The Credit Guarantee Act 2012, and Schemes made thereunder, have resulted in encouragement of bank lending to Irish SMEs to both create new jobs and protect existing ones. To date approx. €50 million of loans have been sanctioned in more than 300 facilities, and some 2200 jobs were created/maintained;

- The 2012 Act was reviewed in 2014-2015, and, in February of this year, the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Act, 2016 was enacted. New Schemes are currently being drafted to extend the remit of credit guarantees (covering expanded forms of lending, and greater risk sharing), and introduce new counter guarantees to enhance the provision of both State and EU-sourced finance for Irish SMEs;

Microfinance Ireland (MFI)

- The Microenterprise Loan Fund Act, 2012 established MFI to provide loans of up to €25,000 to Irish micro-enterprises. To date approx. €13 million was been loaned to 870 firms, with more than 2000 jobs being created/maintained.

- As with credit guarantees, the operation of MFI was reviewed in 2015, and a number of changes were made to ease access to loans primarily, via the removal of the previous pre-requisite of a bank loan rejection. The legislative changes have resulted in a substantial increase in the activities both nationally and regionally in the last year and a half.

Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI)

- The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Act 2014 established the SBCI, and tasked it to provide up to €800m of funds for Irish SMEs previously over reliant on bank financing. This tranche of funding has now been fully committed to business.

Prompt Payments Code (PPC)

- In May 2015, the Government launched the PPC to encourage and promote best practice between businesses and suppliers and improve cash flow for businesses and, ultimately, drive a change in the payment culture in Ireland.

Credit Review Office

- The Credit Review Office continues to review applications for credit made by SMEs or Farm borrowers with viable business propositions who have had an application for credit of up to €3 million declined or reduced by either Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank or Ulster Bank.

- The Credit Review Office also examines cases where borrowers feel that the terms and conditions of their existing loans, or a new loan offer, are unfairly onerous or have been unreasonably changed to their detriment.

My Department Officials continue to work with other Departmental and Agency officials through the State Bodies Group chaired by the Department of Finance to ensure appropriate financing options are available to SMEs, and are currently continuing to work on developing an export finance strategy with the objective of delivering a product to market this year in line with commitments in the Action Plan for Jobs 2016 in this area. In addition work is continuing on implementing a full range of actions in the finance for growth arena detailed in Chapter 7 of the Action Plan for Jobs 2016.

The Government will continuously monitor the availability of credit to our SMEs to ensure that our SMEs are well positioned to grow further in our recovering economy and continue to create further jobs.