The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, has published the Microenterprise Loan Fund Amendment Bill 2020.

The bill will significantly beef up Microfinance Ireland, which provides low-cost COVID-19 loans to the country's smallest businesses. It will enable a significant expansion of the Future Growth Loan Scheme, which has proven extremely popular among SMEs, the government said.

The acts amended will be the Microenterprise Loan Fund Act 2012 and the European Investment Fund Act 2018.

Expansion of Microfinance COVID-19 Loan Fund

The legislation will underpin a major expansion of the Microfinance COVID-19 Loan Fund, which was launched on March 23, 2020. Loans of up to €50,000 are currently available through Microfinance Ireland (MFI) with a six-month interest free and repayment free period.

In the two months since the launch of the MFI COVID-19 Loan Fund at the end of March, €11 million in lending has been approved to almost 400 small businesses across the country. This is almost double the total loans of €6 million approved by MFI for the whole of last year.

The legislation will:

• Permit MFI to raise funding through the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI). This will significantly strengthen their funding model and allow for access to relevant European Investment Bank (EIB) funding through SBCI;
• Increase the aggregate amount of exchequer grants that can be given to MFI under section 5(2) of the Microenterprise Loan Fund Act from €35 million to €95 million;
• Increase the legislative ceiling on outstanding borrowings by Microfinance Ireland from €25 million to €100 million.

Minister Humphreys said: “The Microfinance Ireland Loan Fund has been a vital support for small businesses across the country. Demand has been exceptionally strong to date with almost 400 loans already approved for small businesses under the scheme.

"This represents a 600% increase on their normal activity levels. I expect demand to increase further as more businesses begin their reboot. I have brought this legislation to government today to make sure that I can continue to support small businesses with this funding for as long as they need it.”

Microfinance Ireland (MFI) loans are a key component in the wider suite of supports being offered by the government for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have a higher risk appetite than traditional financial providers and have assisted businesses across all sectors and throughout every region in Ireland.

Expansion of Future Growth Loan Scheme

The Future Growth Loan Scheme, which was launched in 2019, provides loans of up to €3 million with terms of up to 10 years to SMEs including farmers and fishers.

There has been a rapid uptake of this €300 million scheme by SMEs with a broad reach across all sectors and regions ranging from exporting businesses to local family businesses.

The government recently announced that an additional €200 million in lending would be made available through the Future Growth Loan Scheme. Following further negotiations with the EIB Group, agreement has been secured to increase the ceiling of additional lending from €200 million to €500 million, thus enabling a much greater number of businesses to be supported.

An amendment to the legislation which underpins the scheme is necessary in order to secure the additional €500 million in lending through the scheme.

Long-term loans

Minister Humphreys said: “The Future Growth Loan Scheme provides long-term loans of eight to 10 years to businesses at low interest rates. There has been huge demand for the scheme and this €500 million expansion will allow us to further support the needs of SMEs including primary producers, impacted by COVID-19. The long-term nature of these loans is particularly important for businesses as they plan for recovery.

“The expansion of the Microfinance COVID-19 Loan Fund together with the €500 million Future Growth Loan Scheme will provide further liquidity to SMEs as they work to reopen their doors and get back on their feet.

“Every effort has been made by my department to get this legislation drafted and published as quickly as possible. The legislation is now ready-to-go and I hope that it can be enacted as quickly as possible once a new government is formed so that businesses can get access to this vital liquidity.”