How hard is it to get a Microfinance Ireland loan? What the 2025 figures show

The 2025 figures

These come from Microfinance Ireland's report for the year to 31 December 2025, published by the Department of Enterprise.

Applications were about 35% higher than in 2024. Microfinance Ireland links that to its top loan going up to €50,000 in September 2024. The first half of 2026 looks similar: 895 applications, 321 approved, 121 declined, and an approval rate of 40%.

Why the approval rate looks low

Microfinance Ireland explains it in its own reports. Its rate is held down by "applications where not all the documentation is submitted". Those have to be withdrawn without being assessed. It also gets more applications from businesses outside its rules, and those are withdrawn too.

For applications it does assess, it says the approval rate is in the mid 60s, in line with its long-term average. On the 2025 numbers, 511 approved out of 793 decided is 64%.

So the 37% headline does not mean most applicants are turned down. In 2025, 282 applications were declined, while 597 never reached a decision at all. A complete application is the part you control.

Who it lends to, and who it cannot

It lends €2,000 to €50,000 to businesses with fewer than 10 full-time staff and turnover under €2 million that have difficulty borrowing from a bank or other lender. Of the 511 loans approved in 2025:

• 261, or 51%, went to start-ups
• 269 went to sole traders, 229 to limited companies and 13 to partnerships
• 84% went to businesses employing 3 people or fewer
• 78% went to businesses outside Dublin
• the biggest sectors were wholesale and retail, with 19%, and accommodation and food, with 11%
• the average loan was €23,900

It cannot lend for property development or buy-to-let, gambling, tobacco, weapons, medical cannabis or CBD, share trading, or fossil fuel and other high-emission industries. Companies limited by guarantee are excluded, and so is anyone currently in bankruptcy or a personal insolvency arrangement. The loan cannot pay off bank debt or old Revenue debt.

The rate, terms and paperwork for each loan are on our page on the State lender for firms under 10 staff.

Going through your Local Enterprise Office

The offices help with Microfinance Ireland applications for free. An application that comes with the office's referral letter gets 5.5% in place of 6.5%. A referral letter from a bank that has refused you takes the same 1% off.

The offices' own 2025 report says they helped with 608 applications and 281 were approved. That is 46%, against 37% across all applications that year. The two figures come from different reports, so treat the comparison as rough.

The office cannot approve the loan. Microfinance Ireland decides. But Microfinance Ireland's report shows the offices as its biggest source of approved loans in 2025, ahead of people who applied directly and bank referrals.

The same offices run mentoring, training and grants, though their cash grants shut out shops, cafes and trades.

If you are refused

For a loan over €5,000 you can appeal in writing. An assessor who had no part in the first decision reviews it, and you get a written answer within 15 business days. That answer is final. In 2025 there were 51 appeals, and 10 were approved.

A decision on a Small Loan of €2,000 to €5,000 is final, with no appeal. Microfinance Ireland suggests waiting about six months before you apply again, or until the problems it raised are fixed.

The State service that reviews refused bank loans covers only AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB, so it cannot look at a Microfinance Ireland decision. We list other lenders that take a business with no trading record.

What to do before you apply

1. Check the rules: fewer than 10 staff, turnover under €2 million, a sector it can lend to, and evidence that a bank would not lend, if it asks.
2. Look at your Central Credit Register report first. A poor credit history does not stop you applying, but Microfinance Ireland looks at whether you are dealing with existing debts. Company directors and 25% shareholders must send their own report.
3. Get your tax in order. An approved loan is not paid out until you give a tax clearance certificate.
4. Build the 12-month cashflow with the repayments on this loan in it.
5. Gather every document on the checklist and send them together. The 10 working day decision clock only starts once the application is complete.
6. Talk to your Local Enterprise Office, or join one of Microfinance Ireland's monthly webinars.

Our page-by-page notes on the current form list every attachment.

Common questions

Keep reading

• what any Irish lender checks, and your rights if it says no
• borrowing for a business from your local credit union
• having the loan form and cashflow drafted from your answers