By Richie Lennon
The three main Local Enterprise Office grants are Feasibility, Priming and Business Expansion. They support different stages, from testing a business idea to starting and growing an eligible enterprise. Funding covers part of approved costs, rather than the whole project. Check your eligibility and speak to your local LEO before committing expenditure. A strong application needs a credible project, evidence of demand and the money to deliver it.
The grant amount gets the attention. Whether your business can deliver the project deserves just as much.
We see funding as a test of readiness. Can you explain what the money will achieve, show the costs and fund your share? Will the project still make commercial sense once the grant has been spent? Those questions belong before the application form.
This guide covers the three core grants, the limits that matter and how to prepare. Other supports have different eligibility rules, so being outside one scheme does not mean being outside every LEO programme.
The three grants at a glance
| Grant | Stage | Main purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility | Before committing to a new venture or project | Test the market, technical approach and commercial viability |
| Priming | First 18 months of a business | Help establish an eligible enterprise |
| Business Expansion | Growth after the initial 18 months | Support an eligible expansion project |
The national grant pages set out the main rules. Your local office assesses the business and project, including eligible expenditure, available funding and any previous State support.
Treat a published maximum as a ceiling. It is not an offer to your business.
Check whether your business fits
These core financial supports are principally aimed at manufacturing and internationally traded services, with growth and employment potential. They are generally for microenterprises, although some larger businesses may qualify under specific conditions.
Ordinary retail, personal services and professional services do not automatically qualify. An online shop is not eligible simply because it trades online, and an agency is not eligible simply because it has overseas clients. Explain the actual activity and proposed project to your LEO.
For example, LEO Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown’s eligibility guidance lists both eligible activities and exclusions. It also considers local competition, the applicant’s capacity and relationships with other businesses. Use your own local office’s requirements for the application.
Start with a short conversation covering:
- what you sell and where your customers are
- how long you have been trading and how many people you employ
- what the project will change
- expected jobs, market opportunity and export potential
- previous grants and relationships with Enterprise Ireland or other agencies.
Do this before spending days building a proposal for a scheme that cannot support the activity.
1. Feasibility Grant: test before you commit
A feasibility project should resolve an important uncertainty. Is there a market? Can the product be developed? Does the proposed operation have a viable cost structure?
The national Feasibility Grant guidance provides for support of up to €15,000. The contribution is up to 50% of eligible costs in the Southern and Eastern region, or 60% in the Border, Midland and Western region.
Eligible headings can include market research, consultancy and prototype development. Agree the actual costs with your local office. A heading on the website does not mean every invoice under it will qualify.
A useful feasibility brief defines the decision the work must support. For example, researching an export market should tell you who buys, what they will pay, how you reach them and whether delivery leaves enough margin. A report that merely says the market is growing does not settle those questions.
Before applying, specify the evidence you need, who will produce it and what would make you proceed, change direction or stop. That keeps the project useful even if the answer is that the original idea should not go ahead.
2. Priming Grant: establish the business
The Priming Grant applies during the first 18 months of an eligible business.
The normal maximum is 50% of the investment or €80,000, whichever is lower. Awards above €80,000, up to €150,000, are exceptional and subject to the additional criteria. The headline €150,000 is therefore not the normal funding available to every start-up.
Approved cost headings can include capital expenditure, salary costs, consultancy and overheads. The award depends on the approved project and its conditions, rather than a standard allowance for each new business.
Your plan should connect spending to the operation. If you are hiring, explain the role, the demand that supports it and how wages will be funded after the supported period. If you are buying equipment, show the capacity it adds and the sales needed to use it.
Registering a company is one step. Building a business that can pay its way is another. The application needs the second story as well as the first.
3. Business Expansion Grant: fund the next stage
The Business Expansion Grant is designed for growth after the initial 18-month start-up period.
Its normal maximum is also the lower of 50% of investment and €80,000. Larger awards up to €150,000 are exceptional, including projects demonstrating the relevant export or Enterprise Ireland potential.
A business that received a Priming Grant is generally ineligible to apply until 12 months after the later of its approval or drawdown date. The published rules provide limited exceptions; discuss previous support rather than assuming that passing 18 months is enough.
For an established business, the starting point is what the existing numbers show. Are customers already asking for additional capacity? Does a new market have credible demand? Will the expansion improve profit, or just increase turnover and working capital?
A growth plan should show the existing operation and the project separately. Otherwise, an optimistic expansion forecast can conceal a cash problem in the business already trading.
Work out what you must fund yourself
A grant contribution does not remove the need for cash planning.
Suppose a project has €40,000 of eligible expenditure and an approved contribution of 50%. The grant is €20,000 and your share of eligible costs is €20,000. That still leaves the timing of supplier payments, drawdown and any ineligible costs to resolve.
| Illustrative project | Amount |
|---|---|
| Eligible expenditure | €40,000 |
| Grant at 50% | €20,000 |
| Your share of eligible expenditure | €20,000 |
This is an illustration, not an award prediction. If you must pay the full €40,000 before receiving grant funds, your temporary cash requirement is €40,000. VAT and costs outside the award may create further funding needs. Agree the payment and drawdown conditions with the LEO.
Build the project into your cash-flow forecast. Include wages, ordinary suppliers and tax payments alongside the project. A profitable proposal can still run short of cash before the grant arrives.
Prepare an application the assessor can follow
Good preparation makes the project easier to understand and the financial assumptions easier to test.
| Part of the application | What it should explain |
|---|---|
| Project | What changes, who is responsible and when it happens |
| Market | Who will buy and what evidence supports the demand |
| Costs | Supplier quotations and a clear expenditure breakdown |
| Funding | Your contribution, borrowing and the timing of cash |
| Forecast | Sales, margins, staffing and cash assumptions |
| Delivery | Milestones and how results will be measured |
The required documents vary by office, grant and business stage. Existing accounts, management accounts, forecasts and evidence of match funding may be needed. Do not assume that every applicant must produce audited accounts.
LEO Kildare’s financial projection guidance illustrates the detail that can be required. Follow the template your own office supplies and make the numbers consistent with your business plan.
The forecast should have a basis for each material assumption. Explain the customers behind increased sales, the capacity behind delivery and the costs behind the margin. Our business forecasting guide covers that discipline in more detail.
Speak to the LEO before ordering equipment or starting work. Confirm when expenditure can become eligible, how approval is given and what records will be required. Retrospective funding should never be your assumption.
What happened to the Trading Online Voucher?
The Trading Online Voucher closed to new applications on 13 December 2024, as recorded by LEO Westmeath. Old articles still recommending an application to that scheme need updating.
Current digital supports include Digital for Business and the Grow Digital Voucher. Grow Digital’s eligibility rules include completing a Digital for Business project within the previous two years, trading for at least six months and having current tax clearance. Its rules differ from the three core grants above.
Ask your LEO which current support fits the proposed digital work. Do not assume that a former voucher entitlement transfers to a new programme or that any website expenditure qualifies.
Use the application to improve the business
Understanding the funding agency’s objectives helps. So does building a working relationship with its adviser before you need an urgent answer.
But the application should also leave you with a better plan. You should know the minimum sales needed, the funding gap, the milestones and who owns delivery. Those are useful management decisions whether the award is large, small or unavailable.
If your accountant can produce last year’s accounts but cannot help you understand the cash and margin assumptions behind the next project, that is a gap to address before you commit.
Around Finance’s management accounts support is relevant to the financial reporting and planning behind those decisions. Grant selection, application work and any specialist assistance need their own agreed scope.
If you run an Irish business turning over €250,000 or more and need clearer financial reporting as you grow, book a Finance Fit Call.
FAQs
Start with the project stage: feasibility work before committing, priming during the first 18 months, or expansion afterwards. Then confirm that the business and expenditure qualify with your local office.
No. Core capital and employment grants have activity and project restrictions. Other mentoring, training and digital supports have different rules, so ask about the specific programme.
No. You need to fund your contribution, ineligible expenditure and any cash gap before drawdown. Use the conditions in the actual award rather than the published maximum.
Do not rely on retrospective funding. Speak to the LEO before committing and establish the required application, approval and expenditure dates.
Not every application requires audited accounts. Ask for the document list for your grant and stage. Existing financial records and credible projections still matter.
That scheme closed to new applications. Ask about current digital programmes and check their eligibility before planning the investment.
