THE UKRAINE CREDIT Guarantee Scheme has been criticised online by people who claim it gives an unfair advantage to Ukrainians here and that it does not help Irish businesses.

However, the complaint appears to misunderstand the scheme, which is not designed to help Ukrainians in Ireland; it is instead designed to support Irish businesses affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“So not only are Irish government giving ‘Ukranians’ [sic] a grant to open businesses, they are also keeping a check every month to ensure these businesses are running smoothly in Irish economy”, a post shared more than a hundred times on Facebook reads.

“Tell me do they do this for Irish businesses? Did they help the butchers, pubs or restaurants in the past four years???

“Can you please all open your eyes to the corruption in this country!!!!” [sic]

Images included on the post show that the claimant is referring to the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme.

This post mischaracterises the scheme, which is open to businesses in Ireland, and was not designed to support Ukrainians starting businesses (and in most cases could not).

“The scheme supports economic activity in Ireland, facilitating the provision of working capital and medium-term investment finance to businesses adversely impacted by the conflict in Ukraine who are facing supply chain disruptions and increased input (including energy) costs,” a government website reads.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused surges in the prices of commodities and energy, as well as creating massive uncertainty in the economic outlook, increasing risks to Irish businesses.

There are restrictions on what the discounted loans offered by the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme can be used for. For example, they can’t be used just for real estate development, financial transactions such as buying shares, or the purchase of agri lands.

Similarly, there are eligibility criteria, such as that the company has to be below a certain size (for example, less than 500 employees). Sole traders are eligible.

“In order to be eligible for the scheme, businesses must be both established and operating in the Republic of Ireland,” the scheme’s rules state, as well as that companies must state that their costs have “increased by a minimum of 10% on their 2020 cost figures due to the impact of the conflict in Ukraine.”

Rather than offering Ukrainian’s loans to start new businesses, the scheme is aimed toward sole traders and businesses that were already established in Ireland in 2020, before Russia invaded Ukraine.

See more about the scheme here.

Last summer, The Journal debunked claims that the government was offering special business grants that only non-Irish people could avail of.

The Department of Enterprise (which is responsible for business grants), the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (which runs schemes for refugees and asylum seekers) and the Department of Social Protection (which runs schemes to help unemployed people become self-employed) all told The Journal that they did not provide business grants that Irish people were ineligible for.

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