Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk. Welcome back. It is 6.51. The European Investment Bank is the finance arm of the EU. It provides loans and grants for projects which it believes will support start-ups and governments, especially in the space of decarbonisation.
It funded the highly successful Lewis construction and the less successful unfinished National Children's Hospital. The EIB has now launched a new toolkit for companies to see where the organisation can help and it's hoping to boost Ireland's almost non-existent district heating scheme. Dermot Keogh is the head of the EIB here in Ireland. Good morning, Dermot.
Good morning, Joe.
Chapter 2: What is the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Ireland?
How are you? Did I miss something? Is there anything else we need to tell them about what the EIB does?
The EIB, well, EIB was established in the 1950s as the sort of financing arm for Europe. It's owned by the citizens of Europe. So the Minister for Finance in each country sits on our Board of Governors and it's directed by the countries and citizens of Europe. So it acts on a not-for-profit basis and it's the biggest bank of its form. We refer to it as a multilateral development bank.
It's the biggest bank of its form in the world. So it works on a not-for-profit basis to offer low-cost finance to projects, to countries, to companies that are aligned with broader EU policy goals. So it's a policy-driven bank. We have our heart in the right place. We're always trying to do the right thing to push forward European economic development and European societal development.
And I mentioned some of the decarbonisation projects that you work on. Can you give us examples of other projects that you've co-funded or funded here in Ireland, apart from Lewis? Sure, sure.
Chapter 3: How does the EIB support decarbonisation projects?
So we're across...
I mean a lot of our work is on the public sector side in Ireland supporting various Irish government departments in taking forward their ambitions. EIB over the years has provided significant financing into the Department of Education to support schools construction all across the country on the education side at a higher level. Are they loans or grants?
So the EIB provides loans, so it's finance that is repayable. What we do is, just to explain, we benefit from a AAA credit rating. So we are able to raise finance cheaper than almost anyone else in Europe.
Certainly lower than any company would.
Certainly lower than any company would indeed. Ireland, I have to say now at this stage, is double A rated by the credit rating agencies. And, you know, we push hard to try to compete with Irish rates, but Ireland as a sovereign is able to. raise money at very competitive rates internationally.
But in terms of projects and the kinds of work that we've supported in Ireland, I mentioned education in terms of primary and secondary schools. We've supported Technological University of Dublin, the Grange Gorman Campus, supporting the movement of 9,000 staff and students in there to North Dublin. It's significant across the School of Arts, Engineering, culinary arts, everything.
So it's really created a hub there.
Social housing also? Social housing, significant.
So social housing over the past number of years and affordable housing has been maybe the single biggest area of support to Ireland. And EIB actually considers Ireland to be a leading country in terms of the strategies that it's deploying for social housing.
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Chapter 4: What types of projects has the EIB funded in Ireland?
But not here. But not here. It's a relatively new concept that has to be said in Ireland. It has been spoken about first in relation to the Poolbeg Waste to Energy Project. That's a heat source that is there. But as we talk about sort of fifth generation district heating now, where you use... industrial waste heat sources to power district heating systems.
And that's what's available to Ireland now. It's a great opportunity.
We'll be meeting... And you'll be co-funding some projects?
So what we're doing now is we're going to announce with Minister O'Brien in the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment a new initiative. EIB is going to collaborate with Ireland to establish models to roll out investment in district heating all around the country. Right. It could be between 2.7 and 4 billion euros worth of investment over the coming years.
EIB is standing shoulder to shoulder with Ireland to establish approaches and strategies that will work over the long term to drive down costs of heating to citizens and to successfully develop an industry in Ireland.
And if you are interested in getting a loan from the EIB, do you just register on the website or do you go to your local minister?
So, well, we have an office in Dublin, which I am leading. And it's the idea being there's a local presence. So you can make contact with the Dublin office and we can, of course, put you in contact with the teams based in London.
Thanks very much, Dermot, for coming in. That's Dermot Keogh, the head of the EIB here in Ireland.
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