Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of the export finance initiative. [38315/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Action 55 of the Action Plan for Jobs called for the roll out of an Export Finance Initiative to support export orientated SMEs in order to determine the demand from SMEs for export finance. A cross-departmental working group was put in place to develop this initiative. The Export Finance Working Group developed a product aimed at providing short-term working capital support for Irish exporting SMEs that was due to be rolled out by end Q2.  Following a request from the Cabinet Committee on the Economy, Trade and Jobs in February 2017 for proposals to assist SMEs with the challenges posed by Brexit, a decision was made to refocus and broaden the work done by the Export Finance Working Group to look at SMEs affected by Brexit. The work undertaken as part of the Export Finance Initiative is now being used to support the development of Brexit mitigation measures; it is anticipated that exporters will be amongst those most impacted. It is important that resources are appropriately allocated to policy measures in light of current Government priorities and it is for this reason that the Export Finance Initiative has not been rolled out.