Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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244. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of loans and the overall amount lent under the personal micro credit loan scheme since it was introduced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2126/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Personal Micro Credit Scheme (PMC) provides for small scale loans, known as It Makes Sense loans, by credit unions to borrowers who have difficulty accessing low cost credit. Currently 111 credit unions, at 272 locations are participating in the scheme.

Loans under the scheme range from €100 to a maximum of €2,000 and have a maximum interest rate of 12% per annum.

The aggregate value of loans drawn down since the scheme was introduced, to date, is not readily available. Each credit union is an autonomous body and is not obliged to report on the volume of its lending , under this category of loan, to my Department.

The PMC Implementation Group is engaging with participating credit unions in Q 1, 2019 to gather relevant data on the scheme and when available, I will make this information available to the Deputy.

An Post facilitates the repayment of PMC loans for social welfare recipients who receive their payment through the post office, by utilising the Household Budgeting facility to deduct the repayment amount from the social welfare payment and transmitting it onward to the relevant credit union.

Currently, there are almost 6,500 PMC loan repayments being made via deductions through the Household Budgeting facility, with an unknown additional number, estimated at 10% using direct debit or standing orders.

The aggregate value of repayments made to the participating Credit Unions since the scheme was initiated is €9.9 million by over 7,000 customers of the Department. This amount includes the interest rate charged by the credit unions.

The Implementation Group continues to engage with the Credit Union representative bodies and individual credit unions to encourage participation in the scheme.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.