An Tánaiste noted: “This scheme has been designed to help and support businesses affected by Brexit. The maximum loan available under the scheme will be €1.5m and the minimum will be €25,000, providing much needed headroom to Irish businesses from the first quarter of 2018.”

An Tánaiste added: “In addition to this, I am also addressing the limited options available to firms who want longer term finance to invest in the strategic development of their businesses. Therein, my Department is now exploring the development of a Longer Term Scheme, to allow businesses to invest in a more strategic manner, so that they can position themselves for a post-Brexit environment.”

The Brexit Loan Scheme will be delivered by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) through commercial lenders to get much needed working capital into Irish businesses. The SBCI will avail of EU guarantees through the European Investment Bank Group in order to leverage the €23m Exchequer funding to finance the Scheme.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed T.D. said: “I believe that supporting lower-cost flexible finance is a key Government response to assist businesses in dealing with Brexit, and indeed the very successful ‘Agriculture Cashflow Loan Scheme’ has provided a template for this new Scheme.

“Given their unique exposure to the UK market, my Department's funding ensures that at least 40% of the fund will be available to food businesses.  Access to this working capital finance will give them time and space to adapt and grow into the future.  I look forward to the development of further Brexit response loan schemes for farmers, fishermen and food businesses over the next year.”

The Scheme will run for 24 months from its launch date and SBCI Chief Executive Nick Ashmore said: “This €300m loan scheme is a very significant support for Irish SMEs to help them address the major challenges that Brexit presents.

“Today's call for expressions of interest shows the SBCI is moving quickly to implement this scheme in the first quarter of 2018. We want to ensure SMEs that need targeted low-cost, flexible finance for working capital purposes to deal with Brexit, can get this finance as a matter of urgency.

“This scheme is good news for SMEs and good news for lenders that want to support new and existing SME customers. We're expecting a very strong take-up from lenders to allow us to reach as many SMEs as we can.”

* The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland represents a partnership between the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW the German promotional bank), the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank and the NTMA Funding and Debt Management Unit. It is a strategic funding company with the goal of ensuring access to flexible funding for Irish SMEs and small Mid-Caps.

Details of the Brexit Loan Scheme are available on www.dbei.gov.ie.