Minister Creed said that he had recently met with the Association of Farm Contractors in Ireland (FCI) to discuss financial difficulties in the sector. “The sustained period of lower commodity prices has caused cashflow difficulties for farmers in several sectors,” he said in reply to a parliamentary questions from Kerry independent TD Michael Healy-Rae. “I clarified at the meeting with FCI that these loans will be available to farmers or small and medium enterprises engaged in primary agricultural production.”

The Government announced that €150m would be made available to farmers at the reduced interest rate of 2.95% as part of Budget 2017.

Minister Creed invited commercial banks to get ready to distribute the loans last month. He said that the scheme would open by the end of January 2017.

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