Grants by type of business: what pubs, cafes, shops, salons, trades and others can really get

What nearly every small business can apply for

Start here, whatever you do. The Local Enterprise Office's three main cash grants are for manufacturing and internationally traded services. The eligibility rules, as published by the Dublin City office, rule out retail, distribution and professional services, and any sector where a grant to one business would hurt the others. The examples given are builders, hairdressers, cafes, pubs, hotels, trades and cleaning services. We explain why the main Local Enterprise Office grants skip local shops and services.

That still leaves real money, open to almost any trading business:

• Energy. SEAI's grants for solar panels, heat pumps and insulation are open to every type of business. There is also the Local Enterprise Office's own energy grant.
• Software. The Local Enterprise Office voucher worth up to €5,000 for software pays half the cost for a business with 1 to 50 employees.
• Premises. Some councils pay a council grant towards painting and signage, and some run schemes that cut rates for a business opening in a vacant unit.
• Rural areas. LEADER, the rural fund that pays up to 75%, covers rural food, tourism and other enterprise projects outside the five cities.
• Starting from a jobseeker's payment. If you are on Jobseeker's Benefit, look at the allowance that keeps your payment going while you start up.

Pubs, cafes and restaurants

• The Local Enterprise Office rules name cafes, pubs and hotels among the businesses its main grants will not fund.
• VAT on restaurant and catering food, hot takeaway food and hot tea and coffee dropped to 9% on 1 July 2026. Alcohol, soft drinks and bottled water are not covered.
• Energy is where the grants are. A premises that spends €10,000 or more a year on energy can get SEAI's €2,000 audit voucher, and SEAI pays up to 30% towards a heat pump or insulation.
• A pub or venue that puts on original live music or comedy could apply to the Grassroots Venues Support Scheme. In 2026 it offered 60 venues up to €20,000 each. That round is closed.
• The €4,000 Power Up payment of 2024 is closed, and we found nothing like it open now.
• We found no start-up grant aimed at pubs, cafes or restaurants.

Shops

• Retail is excluded from the main Local Enterprise Office grants. LEADER excludes conventional retail too, apart from community shops, farm shops and outlets selling local produce.
• The help that exists is local. Councils run the shop front grants and the rates schemes, and each council is different.
• The digital voucher can pay half the cost of new business software.
• If you own the building in your own name and the floors overhead are empty, the State pays up to €135,000 to turn the space over a shop into homes.
• We found no national grant for stock, rent or fit-out, and LEADER lists stock and working capital among the things it cannot fund. Waterford's council scheme, which adds a start-up grant for a new business in a vacant unit, is the kind of local exception to look for.

Hairdressers and beauty

• Hairdressers are named in the Local Enterprise Office rules as a sector its main grants will not fund.
• VAT on hairdressing services has been 9% since 1 July 2026. Revenue's list names hairdressing. It does not name beauty treatments.
• If you take on an apprentice, check the €2,000 a year employer grant for apprentices. It covers the newer apprenticeships set up since 2016.
• The 2024 Power Up payment covered the beauty sector as well as retail and hospitality. It is closed.
• A salon with a street front can apply to a council shop front or rates scheme where one exists. We found nothing else aimed at the sector.

Trades and construction

• Builders, construction and trades are named in the Local Enterprise Office rules as sectors its main grants will not fund.
• We found no grant for tools or a diesel van. SEAI takes up to €3,800 off a new small electric van and €7,600 off a new large panel van. The dealer applies for you.
• LEADER will not pay for vans, diggers, forklifts or trailers either.
• The €2,000 employer grant covers apprenticeships set up since 2016 where the State pays no off-the-job training allowance. Check your trade against the list before you count on it.
• A sole trader or company can write off the full cost of listed energy-efficient equipment against profits in the year it is bought, under the Accelerated Capital Allowance.
• We found nothing else aimed at trades.

Childminders and creches

• The Childminding Development Grant pays up to €1,000 for toys, safety equipment and other kit. It is open to registered childminders, those not yet registered and those planning to start. The 2026 round ran from 11 February to 15 April, and 75% is paid up front.
• Your City or County Childcare Committee has a childminding development officer who can guide you through it.
• Core Funding is a yearly grant towards the running costs of creches, pre-schools and after-school services registered with Tusla, community or private. In return the service offers the national childcare schemes and keeps to fee rules, including fee caps.
• Registering as a childminder with Tusla is not yet compulsory. The Department says the changeover period runs to September 2027.
• LEADER lists childcare and creches among the things it cannot fund.

Farmers

• TAMS 3 is the Department of Agriculture's grant scheme for farm buildings and equipment, and the Department says it is open. It pays towards a set list of investments on your holding. The schemes and rates are on the TAMS page on gov.ie.
• SEAI's solar grant and its heat pump and insulation grants are open to farms.
• LEADER will not fund farming itself, but farm diversification is one of its themes. A non-farming venture on the farm, or processing that adds value after harvest, can be considered, and the farmer's own labour can count as part of the matching contribution.
• Farmers can use the Accelerated Capital Allowance on listed energy-efficient equipment.
• For borrowing, see credit union loans designed for farmers.

Artists and creative businesses

• The Basic Income for the Arts is now a scheme for 2026 to 2029. It pays 2,000 artists €325 a week for three years. Applications closed on 12 May 2026. The Department expected more eligible applicants than places, so being eligible did not mean being paid.
• The Arts Council funds individual artists and arts organisations through awards with fixed opening dates. Its Bursary Award for individual artists opens on 10 November. See the Arts Council's list of funding opportunities.
• Screen Ireland gives development and production funding to writers, directors and production companies in film, television and animation.
• A creative business that sells to customers abroad may fit the Local Enterprise Office rule on internationally traded services, which a local service cannot.

Fishers

• Bord Iascaigh Mhara is the funder. On 3 October 2026 its fisheries page showed the Fleet Safety, Young Fisher, Seafood Training and Seafood Capacity Building schemes as open.
• The Small-Scale Coastal Fishers Scheme was due to open on 14 October and the Sustainable Fisheries Scheme on 15 October.
• BIM runs a Grants Support Service to help fishers fill in applications. See BIM's fisheries funding page.
• If a vessel that got a BIM grant is sold within five years, part of the grant has to be repaid.
• LEADER excludes commercial fishing, fish farming and fish processing, and SEAI's EXEED scheme excludes the fisheries industry.

Gaeltacht businesses

• Údarás na Gaeltachta has its own grants for businesses that start, expand or locate in a Gaeltacht area: a feasibility study grant of up to half the cost, capital grants, employment grants, training grants and a rent subsidy.
• Its list of sectors is wider than the Local Enterprise Office's. It includes tourism, food processing, fish farming and processing, arts and crafts, Irish language services and community enterprises.
• Údarás says not every proposal will be eligible. It will not pay for anything bought before it has acknowledged your application.
• A language plan for the business is a condition of funding.
• You apply through the regional Údarás office. See the Údarás enterprise supports page.

Tourism businesses

• Fáilte Ireland says new funding schemes open through the year. On 3 October 2026 the only one open was a subvention for bringing international business events to Ireland.
• Its recent schemes for festivals and for tourism in the Midlands are closed.
• In rural areas LEADER has a tourism and recreation theme and lists tourism accommodation among the kinds of project it generally funds. A bed and breakfast that is part of your own home is excluded.
• Hotels are named in the Local Enterprise Office rules as a sector its main grants will not fund.
• The 9% VAT rate covers food you serve. Revenue's current list does not include accommodation.

Sports clubs and community groups

• The Community Sport Facilities Fund takes applications from 19 October 2026 to 26 February 2027. Local projects can get up to €250,000. A club must first register on the Department's SPRAOI system.
• It is for voluntary, not-for-profit sports clubs, community groups, governing bodies and councils. A private gym or leisure business cannot apply.
• LEADER funds community projects at up to 75%, to a ceiling of €500,000 where there is no commercial activity. A club that gets LEADER money for a facility must have a plan to open it to the whole community.
• SEAI's Community Grant works through project co-ordinators, and its ordinary upgrade grants are open to community groups and charities.

Common questions

Keep reading

• all the 2026 grants for a trading business, sorted by need
• the 2026 grant list for one-person businesses