Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 May 2026
529. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to provide details on the number of public houses, by county, that applied for and have been granted various Local Enterprise Office Grants in 2024, 2025 and to date in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35276/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra530. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the number of grants issued by Local Enterprise Offices, by grant category, by sector for each of the years 2021 to 2025 and to date in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35278/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 529 and 530 together.
The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) located within the 31 Local Authorities offer direct grant assistance to small businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors. This funding, known as Measure 1, includes Priming, Feasibility and Business Expansion grants. This specific funding is available to those businesses with the potential to develop into exporting entities and that could transition to Enterprise Ireland’s portfolio. These LEO grants are not normally available to domestically trading areas such as retail, personal services, hospitality, professional services or construction.
However, LEOs do provide consultancy and grants in the areas of Green, Digital and Lean to all small businesses, up to 50 employees, in all sectors. These grants are focused on providing capital to assist in implementation of recommendations to digitalise or decarbonise a business.
A wide range of business and management development programmes are also available for all businesses through the LEOs. These programmes are tailored to meet specific business requirements, to support anyone who is starting or growing a business.
Unfortunately, due to current limitations of data collection facilities, it is not possible to extract detailed data on grant approvals by sector.
The overall approved projects by grant are detailed below and this data shows strong and growing engagement with the available supports. All 2026 figures are currently provisional.
|
No. of LEO Grant Approved - Projects |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Support |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 to date (01.01.2026 to 07.05.2026) |
|
Feasibility: |
219 |
159 |
185 |
210 |
274 |
81 |
|
Priming: |
242 |
233 |
171 |
167 |
186 |
48 |
|
Business Expansion: |
425 |
362 |
323 |
323 |
340 |
90 |
|
Market Explorer Grant |
- |
- |
- |
- |
152 |
50 |
|
TAME: |
148 |
315 |
344 |
440 |
13 |
- |
|
Agile / R & D |
21 Agile / 6 R&D |
18 Agile / 2 R&D |
20 Agile |
2 Agile /6 R&D |
6 R&D |
- |
|
Grad Start |
27 |
21 |
22 |
27 |
35 |
8 |
|
Green Start |
- |
2 |
2 |
4 |
13 |
8 |
|
Ukraine Enterprise Crisis Scheme |
- |
- |
3 |
0 |
0 |
- |
|
IP Start |
- |
- |
34 |
27 |
39 |
12 |
|
IP Plus |
- |
- |
6 |
0 |
9 |
- |
|
Trading on-Line Vouchers: |
4450 |
1881 |
1715 |
2397 |
620 |
- |
|
Grow Digital* |
- |
- |
- |
6 |
318 |
156 |
|
Energy Efficiency Grant |
- |
- |
10 |
138 |
725 |
278
|
*The Grow Digital Voucher was introduced in 2024, replacing the Trading Online Voucher.
