Business supports by county

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

Local Enterprise Office Westmeath, at Áras an Chontae in Mullingar, also runs Westmeath County Council's 2026 shopfront grant, which pays 75% of the cost up to €4,500 and is open now on a first come, first served basis. The council also waives 75%, 50% and 25% of rates over three years for a business that reopens a unit that has been empty for six months.

Checked against the official sources on 3 October 2026.

Local Enterprise Office Westmeath

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 Westmeath office can and cannot fund.

Local Enterprise Office Westmeath

Address
Áras an Chontae, Mount Street, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, N91 FH4N
Phone
044 933 8945
Email
localenterprise@westmeathcoco.ie
Website
localenterprise.ie/Westmeath
How to apply
Online portal, after a phone call to check eligibility. The office asks you to phone its grants contact on 044 933 8947 before you fill in any application form, to check that your project is eligible. Completed applications go in on its online Submit platform ahead of an Evaluation and Approvals Committee meeting: its committee page says four weeks before the meeting, and its grants page says three. Projects not complete by the deadline may go forward to the next meeting. The office does not publish its 2026 meeting dates.
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 Westmeath County Council offers

Shopfront Enhancement Grant Scheme 2026

75% of the cost before VAT, up to €4,500 for a single business. Up to €6,000 per premises where three or more adjoining businesses apply together, and up to €6,000 for works that improve access for older people and people with disabilities

Local independent businesses and retail premises within the towns and villages of Westmeath's settlement hierarchy: Mullingar, Athlone, Castlepollard, Kilbeggan, Kinnegad, Moate, Ballinagore, Ballinalack, Ballykeeran, Ballymore, Ballynacarrigy, Castletown-Geoghegan, Clonmellon, Collinstown, Coole, Delvin, Finnea, Glasson, Killucan and Rathwire, Milltownpass, Multyfarnham, Raharney, Rathowen, Rochfortbridge and Tyrrellspass. Businesses elsewhere are considered case by case. A single applicant's premises must be commercially rated. The owner can apply, or the tenant with the owner's written consent. Priority goes to smaller independent businesses in the town or village centre, and you must not owe the council charges unless you keep to a payment plan.

Apply online on Local Enterprise Office Westmeath's Submit portal, which runs the scheme for the council. Send photographs of the shopfront now, a sketch of the changes, the materials and colours, and two written quotes from registered contractors (one quote is enough for items under €1,000). The offer is based on the lowest quote, and nothing is paid for work started before approval. The grant is paid after the work on paid invoices, bank statements and photographs, and is withdrawn if not drawn down within 6 months of the offer. Queries: 044 933 8945.

Open. Grants are given on a first come, first served basis while the 2026 budget lasts, and the online form shows no closing date.

Planning permission may be needed for some works, and the council asks you to talk to a planning officer first (044 933 2036 or planning@westmeathcoco.ie). If you do the work yourself, the grant covers materials only. A business can get a second grant within 5 years for different works.

See the scheme on the council's site

Commercial Rates Waiver Scheme 2026

75% of the rates demand waived in year 1, 50% in year 2 and 25% in year 3. No waiver from year 4.

A business that occupies a commercially rated property that has been continuously vacant for at least six months immediately before it moves in. You must own the property or hold a lease of at least 12 months. After the waiver, the rest of the rates must be paid in full by the end of the year they are billed, or you lose the waiver for the next year.

Apply on the online form linked from the council's commercial rates page. Queries go to rates@westmeathcoco.ie or 044 933 8959.

Open. The scheme has run since 1 January 2026, no closing date is published, and the council reviews it every year.

See the scheme on the council's site

Rates Grant Scheme 2026

15% of your 2026 rates bill, up to a maximum of €825

Businesses with a 2026 rates bill of €5,500 or less that pay the 2026 bill before the end of 2026.

No form. The council asks you to pay the rates owed less the 15%, and it adjusts your account automatically. Queries go to rates@westmeathcoco.ie or 044 933 8959.

Open until the end of 2026.

See the scheme on the council's site

Living City Initiative, Athlone

Not a council grant. Athlone was designated a Living City Initiative Special Regeneration Area on 17 April 2026. If you refurbish or convert a building inside the designated area for retailing or providing services, you can claim capital allowances from Revenue over seven years, with the relief capped at €300,000 per project. Works must cost at least €5,000 and be done between 17 April 2026 and 31 December 2030. The council publishes the boundary map and answers queries at livingcity@westmeathcoco.ie.

See the scheme on the council's site

Christmas Lighting Grant 2026

Grant assistance for Tidy Towns groups and community or business groups that buy, put up and maintain Christmas lights in Westmeath towns and villages. Apply on the council's online form. The council's notice gives no closing date or amounts.

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 Westmeath

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

Westmeath Local Community Development Committee, delivered by Westmeath Community Development

County Westmeath, with offices in Mullingar and Athlone

Every applicant starts with an expression of interest form, which you request from the LEADER team. The 2026 targeted call for climate action projects closed on 22 September 2026.

Phone: 044 934 8571

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.

Westmeath Community Development

County Westmeath. Offices at the Mullingar ETI Centre, Mullingar Business Park, and at Unit 4, Rockdean Building, Blyry Industrial Estate, Athlone

Phone: 044 934 8571

Visit its website

Also in Westmeath

  • The nearest New Frontiers programme for early-stage founders is at Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone campus (Midlands Innovation and Research Centre), delivered jointly with Maynooth University for the Midlands and Mid-East.

Good to know in Westmeath

Local Enterprise Office Westmeath asks you to phone before applying for any grant, and takes completed applications on its online Submit platform three to four weeks before each committee meeting. Its business advisers work by appointment, for people who have finished a Start Your Own Business course or similar, and for Westmeath businesses with ten or fewer employees. The office says retail, wholesale, distribution, professional and personal services cannot apply for Priming or Business Expansion grants.

The same office runs Westmeath's shopfront grant of up to €4,500 for the county council. It pays 75% of the cost before VAT in Mullingar, Athlone and 23 other towns and villages, and is open on a first come, first served basis. The Westmeath rates waiver for reopening a vacant unit takes 75%, 50% and 25% off rates over three years where the unit was empty for six months and you have a lease of at least 12 months. Businesses with a rates bill of €5,500 or less also get 15% off, up to €825, if they pay the 2026 bill before the end of the year.

LEADER funding for rural Westmeath is delivered by Westmeath Community Development for the Westmeath Local Community Development Committee, with a budget of €4,275,000 for 2023 to 2027. Westmeath Community Development also helps people starting a business on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance or the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance, and asks applicants to look at its BTWEA workbook first. Its 24-week Start Your Own Business programme, run in Athlone from September 2026 under Community Employment, needs a referral from a Department of Social Protection case officer.

Athlone became a Living City Initiative area on 17 April 2026. This is a Revenue tax relief, not a grant: refurbishing a building in the town's designated area for a shop or service business can earn capital allowances over seven years, capped at €300,000 a project. Westmeath is also inside the EU Just Transition Fund area, but the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly says no further calls are planned after the START Scheme, which is only for local authorities.

What every business in Westmeath can apply for

Paid service: business plan pack, €99

We can write the business plan for your allowance application

Starting a business in Westmeath? 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 Westmeath?

Local Enterprise Office Westmeath is in Westmeath County Council's offices at Áras an Chontae, Mount Street, Mullingar, N91 FH4N. Its contact page gives opening hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4.45pm on Friday. Phone 044 933 8945 or email localenterprise@westmeathcoco.ie. Meetings with a business adviser are by appointment only.

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

Not the main cash grants. Grants from Local Enterprise Office Westmeath such as Feasibility, Priming and Business Expansion are for manufacturing and internationally traded services businesses with up to 10 employees, and the office says retail, wholesale, distribution, professional services and personal services cannot apply for Priming or Business Expansion grants. A shop or cafe 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). It can also use mentoring, training and a Microfinance Ireland loan, and the office runs the council's shopfront grant of up to €4,500.

Does Westmeath County Council give grants to businesses?

Yes. The 2026 Shopfront Enhancement Grant pays 75% of the cost before VAT, up to €4,500, and is open on a first come, first served basis. The Commercial Rates Waiver Scheme takes 75%, 50% and 25% off rates over three years for a business in a unit that was empty for six months. The Rates Grant Scheme gives 15% off, up to €825, to businesses with a rates bill of €5,500 or less that pay before the end of 2026. In Athlone, the Living City Initiative gives tax relief through Revenue on refurbishing old buildings.

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

Westmeath Community Development, at the Mullingar ETI Centre and in Blyry Industrial Estate, Athlone (044 934 8571). It offers a one-to-one business appraisal, advice while you are on the allowance, information on finance from the Local Enterprise Office, LEADER and Microfinance Ireland, and access to mentors. It asks you to look at its BTWEA workbook, which is part of the application. The Department of Social Protection decides on the allowance.

Is LEADER funding open in Westmeath?

Every LEADER applicant in Westmeath starts with an expression of interest form, which you request from Westmeath Community Development's LEADER team on 044 934 8571 or leader@westcd.ie. The 2026 targeted call for climate action projects closed on 22 September 2026. Check its list of ineligible sectors and activities before you start.

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.