Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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322. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the 2019 allocation for the future growth loan scheme in view of the fact that the explanatory memo to the European Investment Fund Agreement Bill 2018 indicates the cost will be €62 million over a five year period. [48901/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Future Growth Loan Scheme is being developed by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in partnership with the Department of Finance, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Through a counter-guarantee from the EIF, the Future Growth Loan Scheme will leverage €62 million Exchequer funding to provide a scheme of up to €300 million to eligible businesses for terms of 8-10 years. My Department will provide 60% of the Exchequer funding and the remaining 40% will be provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, over a five-year period. It is expected that €6 million will be allocated to the scheme in 2019. This will be confirmed in the 2019 Revised Estimates Volume, which is expected to be published in the coming weeks.

The scheme will be available to eligible Irish businesses, including those in the primary agriculture and seafood sectors, to support strategic, long-term investment in a post-Brexit environment. The eligibility criteria have yet to be finalised, but the scheme will be open to SMEs with an establishment or branch in Ireland. Sole traders will be eligible for funding under the scheme. Finance provided under the scheme will be competitively priced and have favourable terms, including the interest rate, with loans up to €500,000 unsecured.

The scheme is expected to launch in early 2019.