Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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180. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the capital, current and total 2023 budget allocation for the Brexit impact loan scheme, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5380/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There is no 2023 Budget allocation for the Brexit Impact loan Scheme (BILS) in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Vote, as set out in the following table:

In October 2021, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine together with the European Investment Bank Group and Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland launched the Brexit Impact Loan Scheme (BILS), to support SME and small mid-cap businesses (including those in the farming and fishing sectors) that have been affected by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.  Loans under this scheme range from €25,000 to €1.5m and are for terms of up to six years.  This scheme provides low-cost loans with no collateral requirements for loans up to €500,000, making funding available to businesses that would otherwise not be able to access funding. The BILS closed to new applications on 31^stDecember 2022.  As of 30^thJanuary 2023, there have been 1,891 loans progressed to sanction under the scheme, to a total value of €273.3 million.

To ensure that an appropriate option for access to finance remained in place for COVID-19 impacted SMEs, the BILS was widened by Government to allow access to COVID-19 impacted SMEs.  The implementation of this change resulted in the launch of a new scheme called the Covid-19 Loan Scheme (CLS) on the 4^thof July 2022.  The Covid-19 Loan Scheme closed to new applications on 31^stDecember 2022.As of 30^thJanuary 2023, there have been 290 loans progressed to sanction under the scheme, to a total value of €30.4m.