Business grants and supports in Ireland: what is open in 2026

Grants and supports: all 26 guides

• Short-Term Enterprise Allowance

  If you are on Jobseeker's Benefit and want to work for yourself, the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance pays you the same weekly rate while the business...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Back to Work Enterprise Allowance

  If you have been on Jobseeker's Allowance or another qualifying payment for nine months, you can keep it in full for your first year of...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Enterprise Support Grant

  The Enterprise Support Grant helps pay for equipment, insurance, a website and other start-up costs. It is only for people already approved for the...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed)

  If you were self-employed, paid Class S PRSI and have stopped trading completely, Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed) pays up to €254 a week for 6 or...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Wage Subsidy Scheme

  The Wage Subsidy Scheme pays an employer an hourly subsidy for a disabled employee whose job has to be significantly adapted. Most employers get...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Work and Access

  Work and Access is a set of seven supports from the Department of Social Protection. It pays up to €25,000 to adapt a workplace, up to €12,000 for...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• JobsPlus

  JobsPlus pays an employer a monthly grant for 18 months for each eligible jobseeker hired into a full-time job. The amount is €7,500 or €10,000...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Apprenticeship Employer Grant

  Employers of apprentices on the newer programmes set up since 2016 can claim €2,000 a year for each apprentice. The 25 craft trades, such as...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Local Enterprise Office grants

  There are 31 Local Enterprise Offices, one in every council area. Their three main cash grants are only for manufacturing and exporting businesses...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• LEO Priming Grant

  The Priming Grant pays up to half the cost of getting a new business going in its first 18 months. It is only for manufacturing and internationally...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• LEO Business Expansion Grant

  The Business Expansion Grant pays up to half the cost of growing a small business that has traded for more than 18 months. Like the other Local...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• LEO Feasibility Study Grant

  The Feasibility Study Grant pays half the cost of finding out whether a new product or service would work, up to €15,000. In the Border, Midlands and...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• Grow Digital Voucher

  The Grow Digital Voucher pays half the cost of new business software, plus training and set-up, up to a grant of €5,000. It has no export rule, so...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• LEO Energy Efficiency Grant

  The Energy Efficiency Grant pays 75% of the cost of equipment that cuts your energy or resource use, up to a grant of €10,000. Shops, cafes, pubs...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher

  An Innovation Voucher is worth €10,000 and can only be spent with a college or public research body, on solving a technical or business problem. Any...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Enterprise Ireland grants

  Enterprise Ireland is the State agency that helps Irish-owned companies grow in export markets. Its grants and investments are for manufacturers and...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• SEAI business grants

  The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland pays grants to businesses of every kind, including shops, cafes, farms and trades. The grants for smaller...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• LEADER funding

  LEADER pays up to 75% of the cost of a project, to a ceiling of €200,000, for businesses and community groups outside the five main cities. Ordinary...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• R&D tax credit

  A company doing real scientific or technological research can claim back 35% of what it spends, for accounting periods ending 31 December 2026 or...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Shop front grants

  There is no national shop front grant. Each council decides whether to run one, and most pay about half the cost of painting, signage or a new...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Rates incentives for vacant premises

  A number of councils hand back most of a new business's first-year rates if it opens in a premises that has been empty. Separately, some councils...

  OpenLocal businesses: yes

• Turning an empty shop into homes

  Two grants now pay for turning empty commercial space into homes: up to €135,000 for the floors over a shop that stays in business, and up to...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Grants by type of business

  Most State business grants are for manufacturers and exporters. A pub, cafe, shop, salon or trade is shut out of the main Local Enterprise Office...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Trading Online Voucher (closed)

  The Trading Online Voucher closed to new applications at 5pm on Friday 13 December 2024. The Grow Digital Voucher replaced it. The new voucher pays...

  ClosedLocal businesses: no

• Power Up grant (closed)

  The Power Up grant paid a one-off €4,000 to retail, hospitality and beauty businesses at the end of 2024. Registration closed on 22 November 2024 and...

  ClosedLocal businesses: no

• Increased Cost of Business grant (closed)

  The Increased Cost of Business grant, known as ICOB, paid small businesses up to €5,000 in 2024, worked out from their 2023 commercial rates bill...

  ClosedLocal businesses: no