Funding

Enterprise Ireland offers up to 80% grant funding, to a maximum of €5,000, for an external digital expert for between 3 and 7 days. It is for Enterprise Ireland clients: Irish-owned firms in manufacturing or internationally traded services with 10 or more full-time staff, and high potential start-ups. The scheme page points a business without a Client Advisor to Enterprise Ireland's Become a client page. Clients of a Local Enterprise Office, Údarás na Gaeltachta or IDA Ireland should contact their agency advisor. The scheme page says the offer "remains open to applications from eligible Enterprise Ireland clients" and gives no closing date. Receipt of other grants from Enterprise Ireland may affect eligibility.

Read the full guide to Digital Discovery

Digital for Business is a free digital/AI readiness audit. The Grow Digital Voucher can follow it: one of the voucher's conditions is a Digital for Business project completed within the previous two years. Both are open to small enterprises with between 1 and 50 paid employees, and each has further conditions. The voucher pays 50% of eligible costs, with a minimum grant of €500 and a maximum of €5,000 per application. The voucher's page says: "Enterprises can be approved a maximum of two Grow Digital Voucher projects up to a maximum cumulative grant value of €5,000 as identified in their Digital for Business project to support their Digitalisation journey." Custom or bespoke software is not eligible.

Read the full guide to Digital for Business & Grow Digital Voucher

For SMEs and large companies, Digital Process Innovation pays up to 50% of the eligible costs, with a maximum grant of €150,000. The scheme's Terms of Reference add: "The Committee may offer grant at a lower rate than the maxima above." Eligible costs include reasonable external consultancy costs. "The project must involve some level of innovation or risk of failure and must not be focused on routine operational changes or responding to changes in regulation." Subcontracted or consultancy work can be no more than 60% of the total costs; above that, the project is ineligible. You cannot apply for less than €20,000 of eligible grant support, and you must apply before any work on the project starts. Further conditions apply.

Read the full guide to Digital Process Innovation

It helps a business "recover the salary costs of employees for the days they spend participating in AI training". The grant is €204.30 per training day per employee, subject to eligibility criteria. The yearly grant is capped by company size: €5,000 for a micro firm, €15,000 for a small firm and €25,000 for a medium firm. Training fees are not eligible. Eligible applications are approved on a first-approved, first-funded basis until the funding is fully committed. Its funding window runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 December 2026. Claims may be submitted up to 15 January 2027 for eligible training completed on or before 31 December 2026.

Read the full guide to Upskill SME Training Grant