Change for cheddar? €10 million in budget for 'transformation fund'

A combined total of €10 million has been allocated for a transformation fund for food businesses in the event of a no-deal Brexit under Budget 2020.

€5 million has been allocated to both the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine for the purpose of the fund.

Such a fund would be used to help firms change over from cheddar cheese production to mozzarella, according to ministers commenting on the matter.

Transformation Fund

Speaking at a press briefing on the budget and Brexit yesterday, Tuesday, October 8, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys said:

“We will establish a transformation fund for food and non-food businesses with an initial provision of €8 million.

“This is a grant scheme supporting larger firms to invest in innovative products and processes to transform their businesses. My department will provide an initial €5 million to support food businesses and an initial €3 million to support non-food businesses.

“We’re working with the Department of Agriculture who will have an additional €5 million, which is a total of €10 million there for the transformation fund.

So again, those are companies that may need to completely transform. The best example is going from cheddar cheese to mozzarella – they may need to change their entire operation.

Commenting on the money being set aside for assisting vulnerable elements of the Irish economy in dealing with the fallout of a no-deal Brexit, Minister Humphreys said:

“The €650 million fund; as part of that we have €110 million – so we have some very specific schemes that we will be putting in place in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Rescue and Restructuring Fund

“We have the Rescue and Restructuring Fund. That’s €42 million and that’s going to support firms with liquidity or insolvency problems and that need to put in a restructuring plan to adjust to the new reality post a hard Brexit. You could have equity or loans up to €10 million.”

The minister gave an example of the beneficiary targeted under the scheme as “a food processing business that is a general large employer in the regions for whom the introduction of tariffs for example could result in market closure”.

Such a business would need to “radically restructure while meeting the existing contractual obligations”, Minister Humphreys said.