Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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395. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress on submitting an amendment to Ireland's rural development programme at European Union level to create financial instruments to utilise the European Investment Bank as a guarantor in order to provide affordable credit to farmers; the approximate timetable to operationalise these financial instruments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23227/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I am considering including Financial Instruments (FIs) in Ireland’s 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme (RDP). Financial instruments can take the form of loans, guarantee funds or equity investments and the funding for any such FIs would have to draw on Ireland’s existing RDP allocation of European funding as well as National Exchequer funding. It is also possible to incorporate funding from other sources for such instruments.

In order to include a FI as a measure in the RDP an Ex-Ante Assessment is compulsory under EU regulation. My Department published a request for tender on the 28th of June 2016 for the provision of an Ex-ante Assessment for the use of Financial Instruments (FIs) within Ireland’s European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Operational Programmes. The deadline for submissions is the 25th of July 2016.

Once the Ex-Ante Assessment is done, an agreement must be reached between my Department and any other potential stakeholders/financial institutions on a clear investment strategy that is developed from the gaps, if any, identified in the Ex-Ante Assessment. Following this, a new measure description would have to be drafted and inserted into the RDP by way of an amendment.