Digital for Business & Grow Digital Voucher

Digital for Business. It is for small enterprises with between 1 and 50 paid employees that "are not currently clients of Enterprise Ireland or IDA". The Local Enterprise Office's page sets further conditions, including: "Businesses must have current tax clearance from Revenue."

Grow Digital Voucher. You need a completed Digital for Business project first. The voucher's page says it is open to small enterprises with between 1 and 50 paid employees that:

• "have completed a Digital for Business Project within the previous two years."
• "are not currently clients of Enterprise Ireland or IDA."
• "are established and trading for at least 6 months, registered, and operate within the area of the Local Enterprise Office."
• "are solvent as demonstrated in the financial statements supplied."

The page lists further conditions after these, including: "Businesses must have current tax clearance from Revenue."

The voucher's page says these are not eligible: "Companies with charitable status, commercial semi-state companies, “not for profit” organisations" that "do not meet the above criteria". Some charities do qualify. The page says: "Charities that carry on activities that would be chargeable to tax as trading income, but for an available tax exemption under section 208 TCA, are also included within the scope of the scheme."

Businesses in the coal or steel sector, or in primary agriculture, fishery or aquaculture, are not eligible. Ineligible activities include activities relating to the gambling sector, adult entertainment and tobacco. The page says: "This is not an exhaustive list".

What counts as a small enterprise. Both schemes use the EU SME definition: "a business that has an annual turnover or balance sheet total of €10 million or less". A business in a group must "include the data from any partner or linked enterprises when calculating their employee numbers and financial thresholds".

Digital for Business is a "free digital/AI readiness audit" that "provides a roadmap tailored to your business", in the words of enterprise.gov.ie.

Grow Digital Voucher. The grant is "50% of eligible costs with minimum grant aid of €500 up to a maximum grant of €5,000 per application". A business can be approved for two vouchers at most, and the two share one €5,000 cap. The 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."

Eligible costs include:

• subscription fees for "eligible business software that is NEW to the business for a maximum of one year subscription", where the software is "off the shelf". The page's examples include "Analytics software (including AI systems)".
• training and configuration, with a limit: "Training and Configuration amount combined can be no more than 50% of the overall project cost".

The voucher's page says: "Custom or bespoke software is not eligible for grant support. Systems for regulatory compliance do not qualify."

So the voucher does not pay for software built for you, by us or by anyone else.

1. Complete a Digital for Business project with your Local Enterprise Office. The voucher needs one completed "within the previous two years."
2. Have current tax clearance in place. Both schemes' pages say: "Businesses must have current tax clearance from Revenue."
3. Apply for the voucher before you spend anything on the project: "An application must be submitted before any project expenditure is incurred or any project activity commences."

Talk to your Local Enterprise Office before you commit to any spend.

Digital for Business pays for none of our work. It is free, and your Local Enterprise Office's own consultants carry it out. It overlaps with our AI Quick-Start Assessment (€495, excluding VAT), so check whether you qualify before you pay for ours. It is also the way in to the Grow Digital Voucher.

Grow Digital Voucher. Our part is training and configuration of off-the-shelf AI tools. Training and configuration combined can be no more than half of a voucher project's cost, so our part can be at most half of it. We are not a reseller of one vendor's AI tool.

We have no fixed-price package for this work. Work outside a package is charged at our day rate of €900, excluding VAT.

Custom builds are excluded. If you want an automation we build for you, the voucher does not cover it, because custom or bespoke software is not eligible. Our AI Automation and Agents page describes that build service.