Business supports by county

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

Local Enterprise Office Donegal is in the Enterprise Fund Business Centre at Ballyraine, Letterkenny, and you start with a short online enquiry form. Donegal County Council pays up to 7.5% of your rates back, to a maximum of €375, if the year's bill is paid in full by 31 October 2026.

Checked against the official sources on 3 October 2026.

Local Enterprise Office Donegal

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 Donegal office can and cannot fund.

Local Enterprise Office Donegal

Address
Enterprise Fund Business Centre, Ballyraine, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, F92 HP64
Phone
074 9160735
Email
info@leo.donegalcoco.ie
Website
localenterprise.ie/Donegal
How to apply
Online portal: an enquiry form first, then an application form. The first step is to talk to a member of the team, and the office's online enquiry form takes about two minutes. If your project suits, the office sends you an application form and asks for a business plan, quotes and other documents. Grant applications from manufacturing and internationally traded services businesses go to the Evaluation and Approvals Committee, while the LEO Executive decides on mentoring, training and trading online supports. No closing dates or committee 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 Donegal County Council offers

Shop front or paint scheme: none found for 2026

We found no shop front, streetscape or paint grant for 2026 on the council's website, and searches of its news for those words turned up no business scheme.

Commercial Rates Incentive Scheme

A grant worth 75% of your commercial rates in year 1 (up to €3,750), 50% in year 2 (up to €2,500) and 25% in year 3 (up to €1,250). You pay the rest of each year's bill before the year ends, and the council then credits the grant to your account. Full rates are due from year 4.

New businesses opening in an existing rateable premises in a Donegal town or village that has been vacant for two years or longer. You must own the premises or have a lease of more than 12 months, have planning permission and other consents for the use, and have all rates and council charges on the property paid. You must pay rates by standing order and hold tax clearance. An existing business that relocates cannot apply, and nor can a business judged to compete with others in the same town or village. Fast food takeaways, amusement arcades, betting offices, pubs, off licences, nightclubs, cash for gold shops, e-cigarette shops, adult shops, head shops and money lenders are excluded. A business on this scheme cannot also get the council's early payment grant.

Download the application form from the council's commercial rates page and fill it in before you start trading. Email it to ratesincentive@donegalcoco.ie or post it to the Income Collection Unit, Donegal County Council, County House, Lifford, F93 Y622. Send evidence that the premises has been vacant for more than two years and proof of ownership or your lease. Queries go to 074 9153900.

Listed on the council's commercial rates page with an application form updated in October 2025. No closing date is published, and the council can review or change the scheme at any time.

The guidance document is dated January 2020 and the rates page still asks whether you are opening a new business in 2025, so check the terms with the council before you sign a lease.

See the scheme on the council's site

Early Payment Incentive Credit (EPIC)

Up to 7.5% of the year's rates demand, not counting arrears, to a maximum of €375

Ratepayers who pay all of the 2026 rates in full, with no arrears on the account, by 31 October 2026. The Commercial Rates Incentive Scheme guidance says a business on that scheme cannot also get the council's grant for paying in full by 31 October.

The council's page does not mention an application form. Pay in full by the deadline and the grant is applied as a credit to your rates account at the end of the year. You can pay by direct debit, standing order, bank transfer or online through MyCoCo.

Open. The deadline for full payment is 31 October 2026.

See the scheme on the council's site

Rates relief for vacant property 2026

The council's 2026 scheme gives 100% rates relief on a property that is genuinely vacant and advertised to let. Apply on the Vacancy Relief Form 2026, in English or Irish, with internal and external photographs and proof that the property is on offer, such as a newspaper advert or an estate agent's letter. The council consulted in July and August 2026 on a scheme for 2027.

See the scheme on the council's site

Rates while a premises is being renovated

If your premises is closed for repairs or renovations, contact the rates team so the council can inspect it. Rates are not payable for the time the property is under renovation, once the council has verified it.

See the scheme on the council's site

Buncrana Night-Time Economy Grant Scheme, Phase Three

Buncrana is one of nine places in the national Night-Time Economy pilot. Phase Three paid up to €500 for smaller events and €500 to €4,000 for larger festivals and events held after dark between April and October 2026. Hospitality businesses, groups, artists and individuals could apply. Applications closed at 12 noon on 27 March 2026.

See the scheme on the council's site

Business Concierge Service

The council's economic development team connects new, expanding and relocating businesses with the right council staff for planning, roads, fire safety, commercial rates and other regulatory matters, and helps investors find premises. Contact info@donegal.ie.

See the scheme on the council's site

Calculator

What would the council take off your rates?

Pick the council and put in the yearly rates bill for the premises.

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LEADER funding in Donegal

LEADER pays grants to rural businesses and community groups. In Donegal it is delivered by 4 local groups, and their staff help you put an application together.

Donegal Local Development CLG (DLDC), for the Donegal Local Community Development Committee

County Donegal outside Inishowen, the Gaeltacht and the islands, with project officers for the north, south and east of the county

Contact the LEADER project officer for your area first. Its page lists two targeted calls taking expressions of interest, one for rural infrastructure and social inclusion projects and one for climate and environment projects, each with grants of up to €200,000. Private promoters can get up to 50% in the climate call. No closing dates are published.

Phone: 074 91 27056

LEADER on this group's site

Inishowen Development Partnership (IDP)

The Inishowen peninsula

Phone the Rural Development Programme team to talk through an idea or submit an expression of interest. A ceiling of €150,000 applies to every project in Inishowen, and €30,000 to analysis and development studies.

Phone: 074 937 3083

LEADER on this group's site

Údarás na Gaeltachta

The Donegal Gaeltacht, including the Rosses, Gaoth Dobhair, Gleann Cholm Cille and Fánaid. The Gaeltacht islands go to Comhar na nOileán

Open to community groups, individuals and small businesses with a project based in the Donegal Gaeltacht. Conventional retail, agriculture and fisheries are among the sectors it cannot fund. No call dates are published, so contact Údarás first.

Phone: 091 503100

LEADER on this group's site

Comhar na nOileán CTR

The inhabited Donegal islands

Open. Phone or email the company for an expression of interest form.

Phone: 099 75096

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.

Donegal Local Development CLG (DLDC)

County Donegal. Head office at Glen View Business Park, Letterkenny, with offices in Donegal Town, Gweedore, Kilcar, Ballyshannon and Killybegs

Phone: 074 91 27056

Visit its website

Inishowen Development Partnership (IDP)

The Inishowen peninsula

Its enterprise support is free.

Phone: 074 937 3083

Visit its website

Also in Donegal

  • Donegal is in the Western Development Commission region, so its loans and investment for western businesses are open to you.
  • Donegal has a Gaeltacht area. Businesses there deal with Údarás na Gaeltachta, which has its own grants, instead of the Local Enterprise Office for some supports.
  • The Donegal County Enterprise Fund, based at Ballyraine in Letterkenny, offers micro loans to Donegal sole traders and small firms: a Micro Credit Loan under €25,000, and a Women's Loan and a Deal Loan under €6,000 each.
  • The nearest New Frontiers programme for early-stage founders is at Atlantic Technological University, Donegal Letterkenny campus (CoLab).

Good to know in Donegal

Local Enterprise Office Donegal shares the Enterprise Fund Business Centre at Ballyraine, Letterkenny, with the county enterprise fund. You start with its two-minute online enquiry form, and an application form follows only if your project suits. It runs a Business Support Clinic on Friday mornings, in person and online, followed by 30-minute one-to-one meetings with an adviser. Mentoring normally costs €13 an hour. The office publishes no closing dates for grant applications in 2026.

Donegal County Council has two rates schemes. The Donegal grant for opening in a town premises empty for two years pays 75%, 50% and 25% of rates over three years, capped at €3,750, €2,500 and €1,250. Every other ratepayer who clears the year's bill, with no arrears, by 31 October 2026 gets a credit of up to 7.5%, to a maximum of €375. You cannot have both. We found no shop front grant from the council for 2026.

LEADER money for rural Donegal comes through four bodies, depending on where your project is. Donegal Local Development covers most of the county, Inishowen Development Partnership covers the peninsula, Údarás na Gaeltachta covers the Gaeltacht, and Comhar na nOileán covers the islands. Each one wants a conversation or an expression of interest before any application.

Údarás na Gaeltachta gives grants and other supports to businesses in the Donegal Gaeltacht, mostly in the west of the county, and has enterprise units at Páirc Ghnó Ghaoth Dobhair and a network of gteic digital hubs. Donegal is also in the Western Development Commission's region, where the State's western investment fund for Donegal companies usually lends €50,000 to €300,000 at commercial rates. Enterprise Ireland's New Frontiers programme runs at the CoLab centre on ATU's Letterkenny campus.

What every business in Donegal can apply for

Paid service: business plan pack, €99

We can write the business plan for your allowance application

Starting a business in Donegal? 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 Letterkenny?

Local Enterprise Office Donegal is in the Enterprise Fund Business Centre, Ballyraine, Letterkenny, F92 HP64. It is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm. Phone 074 9160735 or email info@leo.donegalcoco.ie. It is the office for the whole county, and it also has an online form for sending a query.

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

Not the main cash grants. The Feasibility, Priming and Business Expansion grants in Donegal are for manufacturing and internationally traded services businesses with up to 10 staff, and the office says it cannot grant aid retail, personal and professional services, construction or local services that duplicate existing businesses. It can still help those businesses with mentoring, training and website development. 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). A Microfinance Ireland loan, applied for through the office, is another option.

Does Donegal County Council give grants to businesses?

Mostly through commercial rates. The Commercial Rates Incentive Scheme gives a new business in a town or village premises vacant for two years a grant of 75%, 50% and 25% of its rates over three years. The Early Payment Incentive Credit gives up to 7.5% back, to a maximum of €375, if the 2026 bill is paid in full by 31 October 2026. In Buncrana, the Night-Time Economy grant paid up to €4,000 for evening events, but its 2026 round closed on 27 March. We found no shop front grant.

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

It depends on where you live. In Inishowen, Inishowen Development Partnership's enterprise officers give free one-to-one help with a business plan and with applying for the allowance (074 937 3083). Elsewhere in the county, Donegal Local Development offers a confidential service to talk through your idea and prepare a business plan and cash flow projections (074 91 27056). Your Employment Personal Adviser at Intreo assesses you first and refers you to the local development company.

Is LEADER funding open in Donegal?

Yes, through four bodies. Donegal Local Development lists two targeted calls taking expressions of interest, with grants of up to €200,000. Inishowen Development Partnership takes expressions of interest through its team on 074 937 3083 and caps grants at €150,000. Údarás na Gaeltachta handles projects in the Gaeltacht and Comhar na nOileán handles the islands. None of them publishes a closing date, so make contact before you spend anything, because LEADER cannot pay for a project retrospectively.

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.