Irish delegation to discuss how to access EU loans for small enterprises

BUSINESS representatives are meeting key European Investment Bank (EIB) personnel today to discuss how best to access the bank’s €15 billion loan facility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The visit to the Luxembourg headquarters of the EU-owned bank has been organised by Dublin Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan, who is also a member of the economics committee of the European Parliament.

Ahead of today’s meeting Mr Ryan said that Irish banks and businesses must gain access to the funding available for SMEs, to the greatest possible extent, especially now given the current economic climate.

Attending the meetings will be representatives from Chambers Ireland, the Irish Banking Federation, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Business Banking Group and the Irish Small Firms Association.

Both Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland applied in mid-December for loans from the EIB which they would then lend to SMEs at attractive rates.

The EIB in December announced they were increasing the amount of money available to SMEs by 50% over two years.

Over the past five years the EIB has lent Irish projects over €2.3bn or just over 1% of their total lending in that time.

The most recent recipient is Trinity College Dublin which was approved for a €75 million loan to build a €150m bioscience institute as part of their plan to become one of the world’s top-30 research universities.

Other loans were €175m for the ESB’s Aghada natural gas power station in Cork, €200m for Dublin Airport and €119.5m for the M50 motorway.

The EIB is owned by the EU member states that have subscribed the bank’s capital of €164bn. The bank lends to member states at cheap interest rates to contribute to balancing development and improving economies.