Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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38. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the amount in grants disbursed to businesses under the restart grant since its inception; and the number of grants disbursed to businesses under the restart grant since its inception disaggregated by the value of grants in intervals of €1,000, from €2,000 to €10,000. [14546/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As of 6 July 2020, a total sum of €71,019,277 in grants has been disbursed to businesses under the Restart Grant scheme since its inception in May 2020. A further sum of €17,844,688 is due to be paid in respect of applications which have recently been approved.

The additional information which the Deputy is seeking in terms of the amounts per thousand disbursed to businesses since the inception of the Restart Grant is still in the process of being collected from the local authorities and will be made available at a later date.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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39. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if taxi drivers will be allowed access to the various support schemes for SMEs from which they are currently excluded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14566/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government has introduced a €12bn package of supports for firms of all sizes, which includes the wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment for the self-employed, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities, all of which will help to improve cashflow amongst SMEs. Full details on all COVID19 supports for business are available at:

Any eligible business, including the self-employed, can apply for the following supports. The most appropriate support will depend on the characteristics of the business.

MicroFinance Ireland can provide loans of up to €50,000 as an immediate measure to specifically deal with exceptional circumstances that micro-enterprises – (any business -Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited Company with less than 10 full time employees and annual turnover of up to €2m)- are facing.

Local Enterprise Offices have moved training programmes, workshops and networking meet-ups online, covering areas such as cash management in a crisis, leading your business through COVID-19 and advice for employers impacted by the crisis. Training programmes are free of charge and places can be booked online, through your Local Enterprise Office.

The former Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty on 25 June announced that her Department’s Enterprise Support Grant will be made available to assist self-employed recipients who are exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. This will provide business owners with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. A fund of €12m has been allocated for the extension of this grant. The grant will be payable to self-employed micro enterprises which employ fewer than 10 people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 million and are not eligible for support from the COVID 19 Business Restart Grant or other similar business reopening grants.

Government will continue to explore funding potential for all enterprises as they work through the challenges facing them. I will keep the supports provided under review and continue to support businesses as they work through the challenges facing them.

My colleague, Minister Eamon Ryan T.D., Minister for Transport may be able to provide more specific guidelines or supports designed to suit your particular business.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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40. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if specific supports have been provided to the commercial launderette and dry-cleaning sectors; his plans to provide bespoke assistance to these businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14569/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government has introduced a €12bn package of supports for firms of all sizes, which includes the temporary wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment for the self-employed, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities, all of which will help to improve cashflow amongst SMEs. Full details on all COVID19 supports for business are available at:

This package is a significant step-up in the supports available for all businesses in all sectors at this very difficult time. The measures have been developed to meet the varying needs of Irish enterprise and they are very specifically targeted by size, sector and need and are targeted at vulnerable but viable companies.

There are a number of loan schemes which have been put in place to assist businesses. The Covid-19 Working Capital Scheme open to eligible SMEs and small mid-caps (businesses of up to 499 employees) is operated by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and is supported by the InnovFin SME Guarantee facility.

The Future Growth Loan Scheme open to eligible SMEs and small mid-caps currently makes loans available with a term of 8-10 years and is operated by (SBCI) through participating lenders.

The new €2 billion COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme to aid SMEs is a further development of the existing Credit Guarantee Scheme already available. The Scheme will be available to all SME sectors. The implementation of this Scheme will require primary legislation, the drafting of which has commenced.

The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports to those wishing to start or grow their own business, in the first instance they act as a ‘signposting’ service for all government supports available to the SME sector. Supports offered through the Local Enterprise Offices include mentoring and training. The Mentor Programme is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owner/ managers who need practical and strategic one to one advice and guidance. The mentor contributes independent, informed observation and advice to aid decision making. Furthermore, the LEOs have moved training programmes, workshops and networking meet-ups online. The LEOs provide a wide range of high-quality training supports which are tailored to meet specific business requirements. In addition to this, the LEOs launched the LEO Client Training Initiative which is a new ‘Lunch & Learn’ live training webinar series. This is open and accessible to all LEO client companies and prospective clients across the country, with no registration or sign-up required.

In addition to the above, the LEOs act as a signposting service for businesses to other business supports, the full extent of which can be viewed on my Department’s website at: /

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection's Enterprise Support Grant has been made available to assist self-employed recipients who are exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. This will provide business owners with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. A fund of €12m has been allocated for the extension of this grant. The grant will be payable to self-employed micro enterprises which employ fewer than 10 people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 million and are not eligible for support from the COVID 19 Business Restart Grant or other similar business reopening grants.

Government is considering what further initiatives are needed as part of the forthcoming Recovery Plan. Any suggestions the Deputy has in this regard would be welcome.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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41. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number and value of loans approved and issued to applicants through the Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme since 23 March 2020. [14635/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The new €2 billion COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme which was announced on 2 May 2020, forms a major component of the Government’s strategy to aid SMEs in these difficult times by providing critical support to ensure businesses are facilitated in having access to credit facilities to assist a return to a more regular trading environment.

It will provide an 80% guarantee on lending to SMEs until the end of this year, for terms between 3 months and 6 years. The guarantee can be used for a wide range of lending products between €10,000 and €1 million that have a maximum term of 6 years or less. The new Scheme is expected to include overdrafts and short-term re-financing facilities, the terms of which are currently under discussion with the financial providers.

The implementation of this Scheme requires primary legislation, the drafting of which has been approved by Government and work on drafting is ongoing.

My officials are also currently engaged with the European Commission in seeking approval for the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme and ensuring the Scheme's adherence to the rules set out in their Temporary Framework.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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42. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number and value of loans approved and issued to applicants through the credit guarantee scheme since 23 March 2020. [14636/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Credit Guarantee Scheme was implemented under the Credit Guarantee Act 2012, which came into effect on 30th August 2012, with secondary legislation setting out the operational detail of the Scheme. The Credit Guarantee Scheme is available to Covid-19 impacted businesses, it supports loans up to €1 million for periods of up to 7 years. The Scheme offers a partial Government guarantee of 80% to banks against losses on qualifying loans to eligible SMEs. The scheme is designed to support a range of debt products appropriate to the borrowing needs of SMEs. Term loans and other products such as stocking facilities, performance bonds are covered by the Scheme.

An application to access the Credit Guarantee Scheme can be made through one of the participating finance providers which are currently Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank Ireland. The Scheme is operated by SBCI. The Department plays no role in the application or decision-making process, which, is fully delegated to the participating lenders. The current Credit Guarantee Scheme facilitates guarantees up to a maximum of €150 million in any one year.

Since the 23 March 2020 there have been 5 loan applications approved and drawn down, with a combined value of €1,606,000.00

Information on the uptake of Covid-19 schemes is available from the Take-up of Covid-19 Supports page of my Department’s website.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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43. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number and value of loans approved and issued to applicants through the Covid-19 working capital loan scheme since 23 March 2020. [14637/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Covid-19 Working Capital Scheme is offered in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and is supported by the InnovFin SME Guarantee facility. The scheme is operated by the SBCI through participating finance providers.

It currently makes available a fund of up to €200 million to eligible businesses that have been negatively affected by impacts arising from the outbreak of Covid-19 to enable those businesses to innovate, change or adapt in response to the current business environment. Work is under way on a significant expansion to the scheme which will be brought to the market in the coming weeks.

The scheme is open to eligible SMEs and small mid-caps (businesses of up to 499 employees) negatively impacted by Covid-19. Loans under the scheme range from €25,000 to €1.5m and are for periods of up to three years. The maximum interest rate under the scheme is 4% and loans of up to €500,000 are available unsecured.

Since the 23 March 2020 and as of 6 July 2020 there have been 632 loans sanctioned under the Covid-19 Working Capital Scheme to a total value of €76.56m.

Information on the uptake of Covid-19 schemes is available from the Take-up of Covid-19 Supports page of my Department’s website, which is updated weekly.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number and value of loans approved and issued to applicants through the Covid-19 business loan scheme operated through Microfinance Ireland since 23 March 2020. [14638/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Covid-19 Loan, available from Microfinance Ireland (MFI), was introduced as a support to microenterprises to help them access funding arising from the Covid-19 crisis.

These loans are available for eligible microenterprises responding to Covid-19-related difficulties, the negative impact of which must be a minimum of 15% of actual or projected income or profit. Loans up to €50,000 are available with terms that include a six months interest free and repayment free moratorium, with the loan to then be repaid over the remaining 30 months of the 36-month loan period.

MFI provides vital support to microenterprises by filling the lending gap in the market by lending to business that cannot obtain loans from other commercial lenders. It lends to business that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by commercial lenders and applies interest rate charges for its lending which are not reflective of its credit risk.

Standard loans from Microfinance Ireland have interest rates of between 6.8% and 7.8%. Given the cost burden to businesses even with these subsidised rates of interest a substantial reduction was applied on the interest rate to 4.5% on the Covid-19 loans provided by MFI. This reduced rate is available to all micro-enterprises where the application is made through the Local Enterprise Network or referred by a bank or Local Development Committees. The new rate for direct applications to MFI is reduced to 5.5%.

As these loans are available interest free for the first six months, the net effect is to further reduce the net interest rate payable over the period of the loan.

The types of businesses normally supported, if they could obtain unsecured bank funding, would normally attract a significantly higher rate of interest due to the unsecured nature of this lending and the inherent risk. Microfinance Ireland is a not-for-profit lender and is loss making due to the nature of the risk it is mandated to take.

As of the 3 July 2020, out of 989 applications under the Covid-19 loan, 581 applications had been approved to the value of €15.65m. €12.38m of this has been drawn down as of the same date by micro businesses.

To note, a full list of supports that are available to assist businesses address the challenges posed by the COVID -19 crisis, together with details of uptake of such supports, is available on

This list is updated every week in consultation with Business Units with the updated table published on the Department’s website by lunchtime on Mondays.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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45. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for loans under the Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme that have been rejected by lenders since 23 March 2020. [14639/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The new €2 billion COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme forms a major component of the Government’s strategy to aid SMEs in these difficult times by providing critical support to ensure businesses are facilitated in having access to credit facilities to assist a return to a more regular trading environment.

It will provide an 80% guarantee on lending to SMEs until the end of this year, for terms between 3 months and 6 years. The guarantee can be used for a wide range of lending products between €10,000 and €1 million that have a maximum term of 6 years or less. The new Scheme is expected to include overdrafts and short-term re-financing facilities, the terms of which are currently under discussion with the financial providers.

The implementation of this Scheme requires primary legislation, the drafting of which has been approved by Government and work on drafting is ongoing.

My officials are also currently engaged with the European Commission in seeking approval for the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme and ensuring the Scheme's adherence to the rules set out in their Temporary Framework.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for loans under the credit guarantee scheme that have been rejected by lenders since 23 March 2020. [14640/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Credit Guarantee Scheme was implemented under the Credit Guarantee Act 2012, which came into effect on 30th August 2012, with secondary legislation setting out the operational detail of the Scheme. The Credit Guarantee Scheme is available to Covid-19 impacted businesses. It supports loans up to €1 million for periods of up to 7 years. The Scheme offers a partial Government guarantee of 80% to banks against losses on qualifying loans to eligible SMEs. The scheme is designed to support a range of debt products appropriate to the borrowing needs of SMEs. Term loans and other products such as stocking facilities, performance bonds are covered by the Scheme.

An application to access the Credit Guarantee Scheme can be made through one of the participating finance providers which are currently Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank Ireland. The Scheme is operated by SBCI. The Department plays no role in the application or decision-making process, which, is fully delegated to the participating finance providers. As such the refusal of applications is a confidential matter between the customer and the finance provider.

Information on the uptake of Covid-19 schemes is available from the Take-up of Covid-19 Supports page of my Department’s website.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for loans under the Covid-19 working capital loan scheme that have been rejected by lenders since 23 March 2020. [14641/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Covid-19 Working Capital Scheme makes available a fund of up to €200 million to eligible businesses that have been negatively affected by impacts arising from the outbreak of Covid-19 to enable those businesses to innovate, change or adapt in response to the current business environment. Work is under way on a significant expansion to the scheme and this will be brought to the market in the coming weeks.

This Covid-19 Working Capital Scheme is operated by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) through participating finance providers. It features a two-stage application process, whereby businesses must first apply for eligibility confirmation with the SBCI. Successful applicants are issued an eligibility reference number which they can use to apply with participating finance providers. This code remains valid for six months, and businesses may apply to secure eligibility for an application at a later date.

The scheme is open to eligible SMEs and small mid-caps (businesses of up to 499 employees) negatively impacted by Covid-19. As of the most recent report (3 July), there had been 3,288 applications for eligibility under the scheme made to the SBCI. Of those, only 15 applicants (less than 0.5%) have so far been determined to be ineligible.

Loans under the scheme are subject to the participating banks’ own credit policies and procedures. Information on the decline rate of loan applications under the scheme remains with the banks and is not reported on in relation to individual schemes.

If an applicant feels that their loan application has been declined unreasonably, they can appeal this decision through the Credit Review Office. Applicants may also use the same eligibility reference number to apply with another participating bank.

SME credit decline rates are collated through the Department of Finance Credit Demand Survey and the Central Bank of Ireland SME Market Report. For its Credit Demand Survey, the Department of Finance conducts a biannual survey of 1,500 SMEs in relation to the demand for bank credit and related issues. The results from the most recent survey in respect of the period April 2019 to September 2019, shows that excluding pending applications, the overall decline rate stands at 14% (the same level compared to September 2018). According to the Central Bank of Ireland's most recent SME Market Report (2019), "rejection rates on loan/overdraft applications in Ireland have declined and converged to euro area averages."

The decline rates for SME loans will continued to be monitored through these surveys and comparison will be made to SME loan decline rates in the euro area. The data from these surveys is a significant source of information on which insights can be drawn in relation to access to finance for SMEs in Ireland.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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48. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications for loans under the Covid-19 business loan scheme operated by Microfinance Ireland that have been rejected by lenders since 23 March 2020. [14642/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Covid-19 Loan, available from Microfinance Ireland (MFI), was introduced as a support to microenterprises to help them access funding arising from the Covid-19 crisis.

These loans are available for eligible microenterprises responding to Covid-19-related difficulties, the negative impact of which must be a minimum of 15% of actual or projected income or profit. Loans up to €50,000 are available with terms that include a six months interest free and repayment free moratorium, with the loan to then be repaid over the remaining 30 months of the 36-month loan period.

MFI provides vital support to microenterprises by filling the lending gap in the market by lending to business that cannot obtain loans from other commercial lenders. It lends to business that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by commercial lenders and applies interest rate charges for its lending which are not reflective of its credit risk.

Standard loans from Microfinance Ireland have interest rates of between 6.8% and 7.8%. Given the cost burden to businesses even with these subsidised rates of interest a substantial reduction has been made in the interest rate to 4.5% on the Covid-19 loans provided by MFI. This reduced rate is available to all micro-enterprises where the application is made through the Local Enterprise Network or referred by a bank or Local Development Committees. The new rate for direct applications to MFI is reduced to 5.5%.

As these loans are available interest free for the first six months, the net effect is to further reduce the net interest rate payable over the period of the loan.

The types of businesses normally supported, if they could obtain unsecured bank funding, would normally attract a significantly higher rate of interest due to the unsecured nature of this lending and the inherent risk. Microfinance Ireland is a not-for-profit lender and is loss making due to the nature of the risk it is mandated to take.

As of the 30^thJune 2020, out of 963 applications under the Covid-19 loan, 72 were ineligible/withdrawn and 147 applications have been declined. 581 applications had been approved and 163 were in progress.