Eligible Projects

• Businesses registered and operating in Dublin 1 - 13, 17 and 20
• The enterprise must not employ more than 10 people; In some cases, depending on certain criteria, businesses with 10 employees or more may be eligible, please contact your Local Enterprise Office for more information on eligibility
• Be engaged in manufacturing
• Internationally traded services (details of overseas customers)
• Innovative projects with export potential (Detail in your application)
• Salary support may be offered to unique tourism services projects, focused predominantly on generating revenues from overseas visitors. It must be unique i.e. would not happen without our support and/or displace existing projects in the local economy
• Be a Full-time for profit/commercial businesses
• Be capable of attaining economic viability
• Demonstrate a commercial market for your proposed product or service
• Have adequate overall finance available to the project (detail in your application how you will fund the business)
• Have the necessary management and technical skills
• Have capacity for growth and new job creation
• NOT be Enterprise Ireland clients and not receiving Enterprise Ireland funding

Priority is given to enterprises which over time can develop into strong export entities and who over time will be eligible to access Enterprise Ireland supports.

Ineligible Projects

• Professional services, consultancy, retail and distribution
• Areas of enterprise which involve displacement of existing jobs or business e.g. Builders, Hairdressers, Cafes, Pubs, Hotels, General Printers, Construction, Trades, Cleaning Services, etc. Where there are a large number of operators within a sector, our independent evaluation committee has to have regard to the implications of grant aiding one or some, possibly putting the others at a competitive disadvantage.
• Conferences and Seminars
• Projects which are contrary to public policy
• Duplication of support for projects which would be eligible for assistance from other State Agencies of EU funded Operational Programmes
• Existing Firms which already have an established relationship with Enterprise Ireland or IDA. Please do not apply to the Local Enterprise Office Dublin City if you have an existing application for the same project under consideration by Enterprise Ireland
• Projects involving primary agricultural production
• Mobile assets, i.e. cars, motor vans, laptops, mobile machinery etc.
• Projects deemed to be capable of proceeding without our support
• Projects essentially comprising importation and distribution

PLEASE NOTE

• Any expenditure incurred, prior to receipt of application form, will not be eligible for grant support.
• The grant aid is considered to not give rise to unacceptable/ineligible business activities or deadweight (where the project would  have proceeded anyway)
• The size or proposed size of the enterprise.  It’s important for applicants to consider the linked companies rule when determining if they qualify for a LEO grant. This rule requires applicants to include the data from any partner or linked enterprises when calculating their employee numbers and financial thresholds. This means that if a business is part of a larger group, it must account for the employees and financial figures of the entire group, not just the individual entity. Here’s a simple breakdown:

Autonomous Enterprise: If your business is totally independent or has one or more minority partnerships (each less than 25%), you use the figures solely from your business.

Partner Enterprise: If your business holds at least 25%, but no more than 50%, of another enterprise, or another enterprise holds at least 25%, but no more than 50%, of your business, you must add a proportion of the other enterprise’s figures to your own.

Linked Enterprise: If your business holds more than 50% of another enterprise or another enterprise holds more than 50% of your business, you must add 100% of the other enterprise’s figures to your own.
The intention of this EU regulation is to ensure that the SME status reflects the economic power of the entire group of linked enterprises, preventing larger businesses from gaining undue advantage from SME support programs. It’s a key part of maintaining fair competition and ensuring that support is directed towards genuinely small enterprises

Please read details of how to apply

Take the 1st Application Step