Priming Grant: the Local Enterprise Office start-up grant, and why most new businesses cannot get it

Who can get it, and who cannot

The Priming Grant is for a business in its first 18 months that makes something or sells a service abroad. Sole traders, partnerships, limited companies and co-operatives can all apply. The national rules say:

• The business has no more than 10 employees. An office can make an exception, so ask.
• It is established, registered and operating in the area of the office you apply to.
• It can show there is a market for the product or service.
• It has room to grow, at home or in export markets, and to create jobs.
• It is not a client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Then comes the rule that rules most people out. The Local Enterprise Office eligibility page says the grant aid "does not support" retail, personal services such as hairdressers, gardeners and creches, professional services such as accountants and solicitors, or construction and local building services. Dublin City adds cafes, pubs, hotels, trades and cleaning services to its examples.

The reasoning is that a grant to one local business would only take trade from the one down the road, or pay for something that would have happened anyway.

Some offices add conditions of their own. Dublin City only takes applications from businesses that already have paying customers and are creating at least one new full-time job.

If you are excluded, what you can use instead

Being shut out of the Priming Grant does not shut you out of the office. These are open to ordinary local businesses:

• Half the cost of new business software, up to €5,000, once you have traded for six months.
• 75% of the cost of more efficient equipment, up to €10,000, if you have a rateable premises.
• Mentoring, training and the Start Your Own Business course.
• A loan of up to €50,000 from Microfinance Ireland, with help from the office on the application.
• A rates scheme for taking on a vacant premises, where your council runs one.

What it pays

The national rule is 50% of the investment. The ceiling is €150,000, but grants over €80,000 are "the exception" and only for projects that can clearly move on to Enterprise Ireland. For everyone else the ceiling is €80,000.

Some offices publish a lower figure. Dublin City and Cork City say €50,000, Limerick says €75,000 and Galway says €100,000.

In practice the grants are smaller again. In 2025 the offices approved 186 Priming Grants worth €5,441,293 in total, which is about €29,000 each.

The money can go towards:

• Salaries. Up to €15,000 for each new full-time job, in its first year. Jobs paying over €40,000 get the full €15,000 and lower-paid jobs get less. Galway gives €10,000 as its top figure.
• Capital items. Fitting out a workspace, machinery, office equipment and fixed technology.
• Consultancy, innovation and marketing. Packaging, brochures, trade fairs, website development and consultants' fees.
• Overheads. Rent for the first year, and the cost of installing broadband, a phone line or three-phase power.

It does not cover buying or building a premises, land, vehicles, laptops, tablets or phones. VAT is left out of every figure.

A grant of €50,000 or more, or one that brings your total to €100,000 over three years, also needs Enterprise Ireland's approval.

You pay first, and part may be repayable

The grant is not paid up front. You pay your suppliers yourself, then claim half back with invoices and proof of payment. Kildare tells applicants to plan on funding 100% of capital and marketing costs at the start.

Salary support is the exception. It is paid in two instalments, one when the job starts and one after six months.

Part of the grant may have to be paid back. Kildare says up to 35% of a Priming Grant may be repayable, with repayments normally starting 12 months after the final payment. Cork City says most of its financial assistance includes a refundable part. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown pays its Priming Grant as a full grant. Ask your office before you plan around a figure.

You must also show where your own half is coming from: savings, an investor or a loan.

How to apply, step by step

1. Contact the office where the business is based and ask to meet a business adviser. Offices differ, so check how your own county's office takes applications first.
2. Do not order, buy or sign for anything. Spending before the application is in is not covered, and can make the whole project ineligible.
3. Get the form. Some offices use an online portal. Wicklow uses a PDF form, and only hands it over after you have met the adviser.
4. Write the answers and gather the documents: projections, quotes, accounts and proof of your own funding.
5. The office reviews it and may ask for more. Only complete applications go forward.
6. The Evaluation and Approvals Committee decides at its next meeting, and you are told in writing.
7. If you are approved, you sign the letter of offer, spend the money and claim it back. You need tax clearance to be paid, and grant-aided equipment must be insured.

What you have to write and send

Wicklow publishes its form. It runs to 28 pages and 49 questions. The written parts cover:

• your education, training and business experience
• the product or service, what is different about it, the pricing and your suppliers
• the market research you have done and the size of the market
• your customers, including export customers and any orders already placed
• your marketing plan and your competitors
• every cost you want grant aid for, and how you will pay your half
• why you need the grant, and what happens if you do not get it
• the staff you expect to have at the end of years one, two and three

Five of the answers must be at least 150 words long. With the form you send:

• Financial projections on the office's own spreadsheet: a profit and loss forecast, a cashflow projection and a balance sheet. Dublin City asks for three years of projections. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown asks for a two-year cashflow and a three-year profit and loss forecast.
• Quotes. Three written quotes for any item over €5,000, and one for anything smaller.
• Accounts. Your latest certified accounts, or management accounts if you have traded for less than 18 months.
• Proof of matching funds, from your own resources, an investor or a loan.
• Evidence that your tax is in order.

How long it takes, and if you are refused

There are no rolling decisions. Each committee meets on set dates and wants the full paperwork weeks ahead. Wicklow's committee meets about six times a year. Its last meeting of 2026 is on Wednesday 9 December, and everything must be in by Wednesday 4 November. Limerick's last round of 2026 closes on Tuesday 27 October for a meeting on Tuesday 24 November.

If the committee refuses you, the office must tell you why within seven working days. You have four working weeks to appeal in writing through the office. A National Appeals Panel aims to review it within two months, and its decision is final.

Common questions

Keep reading

• the Priming Grant form, question by question