Business supports by county

Business grants in Cavan: your Local Enterprise Office, council schemes and loans

Local Enterprise Office Cavan is in the Cavan Innovation and Technology Centre on the Dublin Road, and it asks you to talk your project through before you apply. Cavan County Council credits up to 5% of the year's rates, to a maximum of €500, if your 2026 bill is paid in full by 30 December 2026.

Checked against the official sources on 3 October 2026.

Local Enterprise Office Cavan

The Local Enterprise Office is the first stop for any small business. Training, mentoring and advice are open to everyone. Its cash grants are only for manufacturing and internationally traded services businesses with up to 10 staff. What the Cavan office can and cannot fund.

Local Enterprise Office Cavan

Address
Cavan Innovation and Technology Centre, Dublin Road, Cavan, Co. Cavan, H12 R6D6
Phone
049 4377200
Email
localenterprise@cavancoco.ie
Website
localenterprise.ie/Cavan
How to apply
Talk to the office first, then a signed application form. Discuss your project in confidence with a member of staff first. If it may qualify, you send a signed application form with an outline of the project, your background, a priced list of equipment, jobs, markets and competitors, a business plan where asked, and accounts or two years of projections. It goes to the next Evaluation and Approvals Committee meeting, and the office says processing then takes about 6 to 8 weeks. Projects over €50,000 also need Enterprise Ireland approval. No closing dates for 2026 are published.
Courses
Start Your Own Business courses and other training
Checker

Can your business get a LEO grant?

Four taps. The honest answer, and what you can use if the answer is no.

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What Cavan County Council offers

Shop front or paint scheme: none found for 2026

We found no shop front, streetscape or paint grant for 2026. The council's website still holds an application form and guidance notes for a Shop Front Improvement Scheme run by the former Cavan Town Council, last updated in 2014.

Rates incentive for vacant premises: none found for 2026

We found no rates incentive for new businesses opening in vacant premises. A search of the council's website for rates incentives returned only its small business grant for early payment.

Small Business Incentive for Early Payment

Up to 5% of the year's rates demand, not counting arrears, to a maximum of €500

Ratepayers who have paid all of the 2026 rates in full, with no arrears on the account, by 30 December 2026. In 2025 the scheme was for bills of €10,000 or less, and it also required no other council charges owed and no planning enforcement on the premises.

There is no application. The council applies the grant as a credit to your rates account at the end of the year. You can spread the payments as monthly instalments, pay by card on 049 437 8300, or pay by bank transfer or standing order.

Open. The 2026 rates information sheet gives the deadline as 30 December 2026.

See the scheme on the council's site

Refund or write-off of rates on a vacant or closed premises

If a rated property is vacant because the landlord genuinely cannot find a tenant at a reasonable rent, or because repairs or alterations are under way, you may be entitled to a refund of rates, and the council can write off rates at its discretion. You need internal and external photographs and proof that the property is advertised to let. Rates are not payable while a premises is under renovation, once the council has inspected it. The forms are on the council's commercial rates pages, and queries go to rates@cavancoco.ie.

See the scheme on the council's site

Cavan Digital Hub

Developed under the council's digital strategy and open since June 2019, the hub offers hot desks, dedicated desks and meeting rooms for technology start-ups and digital businesses, with support from Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Office.

See the scheme on the council's site

Economic Development Unit

The council's economic development team works with the Planning Section to give businesses advice and help through the planning process, including on larger proposals. Email edu@cavancoco.ie or phone 049 437 8300.

See the scheme on the council's site

LEADER funding in Cavan

LEADER pays grants to rural businesses and community groups. In Cavan it is delivered by one local group, and their staff help you put an application together.

Cavan County Local Development (formerly Breffni Integrated), for the Cavan Local Community Development Committee

All of County Cavan

Open. The company says the programme stays open until the end of 2027 or until the budget runs out. Email a completed expression of interest form to leader@ccld.ie first. Private projects can get up to 50% and community projects up to 75%. Its 2025 targeted call for climate studies closed to expressions of interest on 6 October 2025.

Phone: 049 433 1029 (extension 3)

LEADER on this group's site

Help with a business plan if you are on a welfare payment

If you are on a jobseeker's or other social welfare payment and want to start a business, a local development company helps you prepare the business plan for the enterprise allowances.

Cavan County Local Development (CCLD)

All of County Cavan. Main office at Unit 6A, Corlurgan Business Park, Ballinagh Road, Cavan

Phone: 049 433 1029

Visit its website

Also in Cavan

  • Cavan County Enterprise Fund, set up in 1988 and listed on the Local Enterprise Office's website, has a revolving loan fund for Cavan manufacturing, traded services and tourism firms and a Social Loan Fund, but it publishes no loan amounts or rates.
  • The nearest New Frontiers programme for early-stage founders is at Dundalk Institute of Technology (Regional Development Centre), which runs the programme for the Border and mid-east region with Dublin City University.

Good to know in Cavan

Local Enterprise Office Cavan works from the Cavan Innovation and Technology Centre on the Dublin Road. It offers free 45-minute Business Advice Clinics with a financial mentor, and the topics include grant applications and a small business loan application in Cavan. Its next Start Your Own Business programme runs online on six mornings from 6 October 2026 and costs €25. For new businesses, mentoring goes first to people who have done that course.

Cavan County Council has no rates incentive for new businesses in vacant premises and no shop front grant in 2026, as far as we could find. It does pay Cavan's early payment grant on commercial rates: up to 5% of the year's bill, capped at €500, credited at the end of the year if everything is paid by 30 December 2026. The 2026 rate is 0.2432, so a property valued at €5,000 pays €1,216.

Cavan County Enterprise Fund lets workspace in enterprise centres at Killygarry in Cavan town, Cootehill, Blacklion and Killeshandra, and the council's Cavan Digital Hub has desks and meeting rooms for tech start-ups. For loans from the fund, phone 049 437 7277.

Cavan County Local Development, on the Ballinagh Road in Cavan town, runs LEADER grants for rural Cavan and says the programme is open until the end of 2027 or until its budget is spent. Its enterprise officer also helps people on the Live Register who want to become self-employed, with one-to-one mentoring, Start Your Own Business courses and the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance.

What every business in Cavan can apply for

Paid service: business plan pack, €99

We can write the business plan for your allowance application

Starting a business in Cavan? We write the business plan and 12-month cashflow that an allowance or a loan application asks for.

  • Your business plan under the headings the Department of Social Protection asks for
  • Your 12-month cashflow, month by month
  • A prep sheet for the meeting with your adviser, and a guide to the form
€99Order my plan pack, €99See what is in the pack

€99 one-off, VAT included. You put in your figures and check your cashflow, then pay and answer the questions. A person prepares your pack within two working days. 14-day money-back promise. We cannot promise any funder will approve you.

Common questions

Where is the Local Enterprise Office in Cavan?

Local Enterprise Office Cavan is in the Cavan Innovation and Technology Centre (CITC), Dublin Road, Cavan, H12 R6D6, about a mile from the Dublin Road roundabout, between the Hotel Kilmore and Lakeland Dairies. It is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Phone 049 4377200 or email localenterprise@cavancoco.ie.

Can a shop or cafe in Cavan get a LEO grant?

Not the main cash grants. The Priming, Business Expansion and Feasibility grants from the Cavan office are for microenterprises with up to 10 staff in manufacturing, traded services and tourism, with priority for future exporters and tourism aimed at overseas visitors. The office lists retailing, wholesaling, professional services and construction trades as ineligible. A shop or cafe with 1 to 50 employees that has traded for six months can apply for the Grow Digital Voucher (50% of the cost, up to €5,000, after a Digital for Business consultant's report) and the Energy Efficiency Grant (75% of the cost, up to €10,000, after a Green for Business report). Free advice clinics, mentoring, training and a Microfinance Ireland loan are the other options.

Does Cavan County Council give grants to businesses?

Its main one is the small business grant for early payment of rates: up to 5% of the 2026 bill, to a maximum of €500, if you have paid in full with no arrears by 30 December 2026. There is no application. We found no rates incentive for new businesses in vacant premises and no shop front grant for 2026. A landlord who cannot let a property, or a business closed for repairs, can ask about a refund or write-off of rates.

Who helps with a Back to Work Enterprise Allowance business plan in Cavan?

Cavan County Local Development. Its enterprise officer meets people on the Live Register one to one, and it runs Start Your Own Business and basic bookkeeping courses. Phone 049 433 1029. Your Employment Personal Adviser at Intreo assesses you first and refers you, and the business must be approved in writing before you start trading.

Is LEADER funding open in Cavan?

Yes. Cavan County Local Development says the 2023 to 2027 programme is open until the end of 2027 or until the budget is spent. Email a completed expression of interest form to leader@ccld.ie, and if the project is eligible you are invited to make a full application. Private projects can get up to 50% of the cost and community projects up to 75%.

Where this comes from

Checked on 3 October 2026. We are an independent guide, not a government service. Closing dates and schemes change, so confirm with the office or the council before you rely on anything here.