Enterprise Ireland (EI) has allocated just €20m of a special EU-approved Covid rescue fund to troubled Irish companies. But agency chief executive Julie Sinnamon told the Sunday Independent that the entire Sustaining Enterprise Fund of €180m would be allocated before it runs out at the end of the year.
The agency has identified 300 client companies significantly affected by both Covid and Brexit. A further 5,000 firms, many of them not EI clients, have also made contact with the agency for financial planning advice, she said.
Industry bodies have called for emergency funds to be pumped more quickly into troubled companies hit by the pandemic in order to close the widening liquidity gaps that are threatening their future. But Sinnamon insisted that the process takes time because EI must work with shareholders and banks, as well as the companies themselves.
“It isn’t just about the State supporting these companies,” she said. “It really is a tripartite approach that is needed to put together sustainable plans and to get everybody to play their part to fund these companies through to the recovery phase. We’re very active in that space with companies across all sectors and that will determine how many of those companies with significant liquidity issues at present can be sustained.”
Source: https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ei-will-allocate-full-180m-covid-fund-vows-ceo-39377270.html