EIB signs €70m Irish funding deal

FINGAL County Council in North Dublin has secured backing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a €70m credit line it can use to support capital projects.

EIB President Werner Hoyer and vice president Andrew McDowell last night attended the signing of a framework loan agreement along with the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Mary McCamley, and the CEO of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid.

The funding deal gives Fingal County Council the capacity to borrow up to €70m over a fiveyear drawdown period, with the money is repayable over a 25-year term.

This will be invested in the County’s Capital Development Plan thereby enabling a €180m gross expenditure on capital projects in Fingal, including infrastructure and job creation.

The EIB has ramped up supports to Ireland since the crash, including recent support for capital spending by Limerick City and County Council’s Limerick 2030 Project and backing for a lending scheme aimed at increasing access and reducing borrowing costs for the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector.

In a sign access to credit has improved, ISME, the Irish SME Association, yesterday reported a decrease in bank refusal rates to firms applying for credit in its Quarterly Bank Watch Survey for the final three months of 2017. A third of applications are still rejected, however.

“The 32pc refusal rate is still considerably high. Banks could help SMEs improve their application procedures by giving more structured feedback to the domestic market on why applications fail,” said ISME CEO Neil McDonnell.