Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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174. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated to eSPSV business loan in 2021, 2022, and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5373/23]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the capital, current and total 2023 budget allocation for the Covid-19 business loan phase 2 and Covid-19 loan scheme, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5382/23]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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186. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the capital, current and total 2023 budget allocation for the microenterprise loan fund, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5386/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 174, 182 and 186 together.

There is a 2023 Budget Capital allocation of one thousand euro for the Microenterprise Loan Fund in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Vote, as set out in the following table:

There is no 2023 Budget allocation for the Microfinance Ireland (MFI) Covid-19 business loan phase 2 and MFI Covid-19 loan scheme in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Vote, as set out in the following table:

There is no 2021, 2022 or 2023 Budget allocation for the MFI eSPSV business loan scheme in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Vote, as set out in the following table

The Microenterprise Loan Fund, operated by Microfinance Ireland (MFI) assists microenterprises, businesses with fewer than ten employees and/or turnover less than €2 million, that are not able to access lending from conventional sources. It provides much-needed funding to help microenterprises meet payments for stock, working capital requirements and other overhead expenses through the provision of lending facilities at attractive terms and conditions, that would otherwise not be available to them.

In addition to its lending services, MFI provides post approval mentoring services free of charge to its borrowers. The mentoring services are delivered through the Local Enterprise Office Network.

Microfinance Ireland 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 provides loans of €2,000 up to €25,000 to businesses 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.

The loan term is typically three years for working capital purposes and can be extended to five years for capital expenditures. Interest rates range from between 4.5% for clients of Local Enterprise Offices and other partners to 5.5% for direct applications. There is wide regional spread of loans across the country with 81% of loans approved in 2022 to microenterprises outside Dublin.

The dominant sectors availing of loans from MFI have been the wholesale and retail sector (21%), accommodation and food services (11%), manufacturing (10%) and construction (9%). From the 1st of Oct 2012 to 31^stDecember 2022, the Fund approved loans to 4,635 micro-enterprises for a total value of €76.9million. These funds supported over 10,000 jobs.

MFI, in consultation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, introduced its COVID-19 Business Loan as one of the first supports available to business in response to the pandemic.Loans of up to €50,000 were initially made available from March 2020 up to July 2020 under phase 1 of the scheme at reduced interest rates. Phase 2 of the scheme was launched at the end of August 2020. Loans under phase 2 of the scheme continued to be available at reduced interest rates with an additional 6-month interest rebate. Maximum loan amounts were €25,000 in line with MFI’s standard loan portfolio. There was a total of 1,177 MFI Covid loans sanctioned to the value of €27.5 million. This scheme ceased on 31^stDecember 2022.

The eSPSV Business Loan supports small business owners with a Small Public Service Vehicle (SPSV) that are unable to secure finance from Banks and Asset Finance providers and are availing of the government’s eSPSV Grant Scheme to replace their vehicle with a more sustainable model (electric/hybrid). This scheme ceased 31^stDecember 2022.

The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and MFI agreed in September 2021 a new partnership enhancing the availability of lower-cost MFI loans for Irish microenterprises. The SBCI has committed €30 million to MFI which significantly increases MFI’s lending capacity and ability to support more micro enterprises. The lower cost of the SBCI funding will allow MFI to offer lower rates on its Start Up, Cashflow and Business Expansion loans.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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175. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated to the agile innovation fund in 2021, 2022, and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5374/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Agile Innovation Fund is funded by my Department, through Enterprise Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland supports companies across Ireland to start, innovate and remain competitive in international markets, now and into the future. They provide grant support for companies to carry out in-house research and development, and also to harness the knowledge and expertise of the Higher Education Sector.

The Agile Innovation Fund provides companies with rapid access to innovation funding and supports the development of new or substantially improved products, services or processes. It features a streamlined online application form with fast-track approval and supports companies in sectors with rapid design cycles to maintain their technology position.  The benefits of this Fund are that it allows for a very simple application process and delivers a very fast response from application to approval.

This Fund allows companies to access up to 50% in support for product, process or service development projects. Projects may range from solving technical research and development challenges to innovations in services delivery or business models.The Fund is open for applications all year round and is open to clients of Enterprise Ireland (EI), Local Enterprise Offices and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

The table below shows the value of the approvals of funding made to companies under the Fund which have been approved by committees in Enterprise Ireland, Local Enterprise Offices and Údarás na Gaeltachta and then offered to companies in letters of offer. 

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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176. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated to the research, development and innovation fund – enterprise emissions reduction investment fund in 2021, 2022, and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5375/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take PQs 5375/23, 5376/23 and 5377/23 together.

In Budget 2022, Government announced that €55 million would be made available under the National Recovery & Resilience Plan to assist enterprises through the Green Transition Fund. This budget is split into two streams, the Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund (EERIF) (€30m) and the Climate Planning Fund for Business (€25m) which will both run from 2022 until the end of 2025.

The EERIF is available to manufacturing companies of all sizes and provides capital grant aid to incentivise adoption of CO₂abatement technologies in their processes. It facilitates accelerated action on potential cost savings and abatement by funding the installation of Energy Metering and Monitoring Control Systems and carbon-neutral, low to medium temperature process heating such as electric heat-pumps or biogas processes.

The objectives of the fund are to:

- Reduce the payback period of key carbon reducing technologies at plant level by incentivising companies to invest in, and adopt these technologies; and,

- Increase the resilience of companies to climate change and assist them to accelerate progress towards a net carbon zero pathway

The EERIF is made up of three separate schemes, outlined below:

1. Capital investment for decarbonisation processes [Scheme 1]: To incentivise companies to decarbonise through investment in CO2 reducing technologies in manufacturing combustion processes by reducing the payback period of key carbon reducing technologies at plant level.
2. Capital investment in Energy Metering [Scheme 2]: To incentivise companies to put in place monitoring and targeting systems to begin accounting for the carbon footprint of their activities
3. Research, Development and Innovation [Scheme 3]:
4. R&D Feasibility: Assistance to carry out explorative work assessing the resource requirements and the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats of a potential R&D project in the area of sustainability
5. Innovation Vouchers: Providing assistance to SMEs to explore a business opportunity or problem with a registered knowledge provider in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation
6. Exploring Innovation: The Exploring Innovation grant will promote better planning of R&D, innovation or international collaboration projects in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation through prototype development, analysis of commercial feasibility, investigating solutions from 3rd level and encouraging companies to think strategically around disruptive technologies.
7. Research & Development: Assisting the development of new or substantially improved products, services or processes, in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation, which will have a competitive advantage in a company’s target market and provide enhanced customer experience.