The Government has given further details of the security required for the Future Growth Loan scheme due to open this month.

"This scheme will be available to eligible SMEs and the primary agriculture and seafood sectors. Finance provided under the Future Growth Loan Scheme will be competitively priced and have favourable terms, for example no security required for loans up to €500,000," the Government's new Future Jobs Ireland 2019 report states.

The Irish Farmers Journal revealed in January that the size of the loans would be between €50,000 and €3m, over terms of eight to 10 years. It will be up to the Strategic Bank Corporation of Ireland and each bank participating in the scheme to accept loan applications from farmers.

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'Sustainability roadmap'

The Future Jobs report also confirms Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed's recent announcement that the Government will this year "publish an environmental sustainability roadmap for the agri-food sector to ensure that the future development of agriculture and the land-use sector, including forestry, will be built upon and contribute fairly to Ireland's climate targets".

The Government also commits to developing the bioeconomy, including energy from biological resources and waste, but priorities for this year do not include any actions or incentives on farms.

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