Local Enterprise Office Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown can accept applications for its financial supports from start-up or established businesses that fulfil the following criteria. This criteria applies to Feasibility Grants, Business Priming, Business Expansion & Export Development Grants.

Eligible Businesses Types

• A business located, registered and operating in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County
• A business employing up to 10 employees. Companies employing more than 10 full time employees and less than 50 full time employees that have an international growth ambition who are not yet ready to transition into Enterprise Ireland may be eligible.
• A manufacturing or internationally traded services business
• A domestically traded services business that can demonstrate the potential to export
• The enterprise must be in the commercial sphere
• The enterprise must demonstrate a market for the product/service
• The enterprise must have a capacity for growth and new job creation
• To work out the enterprise eligibility, the LEO will have to establish whether the applicant enterprise is autonomous, a partner or linked. The LEO must take account of any relationships the applicant has with other enterprises. Depending on the category in which the applicant enterprise fits, the LEO may need to add some, or all, of the headcount data from those enterprises to the applicant. Please see the User guide to the SME definition - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu) for further guidance.

Additionally, we require that:-

• Adequate finance will be available to fund the project including its operating costs
• The promoters possess sufficient management and technical capacity to implement the proposed project
• The project complies with existing policies and permits, licences and authorisations required under any statute regulation or order having the force of law
  
  

Ineligible Businesses & Projects

• Retail enterprises, personal services, professional services (including consultancies), generic services or construction and local building services are not eligible for grant aid
• Areas of enterprise which involve displacement of existing jobs or business: Builders, Hairdressers, Cafés, Pubs, Hotels, General Printers, Construction, Trades etc., would come within this category. Generally, where there are a large number of operators within a sector, the Local Enterprise Office has to have a 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 or 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 if you have an existing application for the same project under consideration by Enterprise Ireland
• Projects involving primary agricultural production
• Projects with employees in excess of 10 people. Companies employing more than 10 full time employees and less than 50 full time employees that have an international growth ambition who are not yet ready to transition into Enterprise Ireland may be eligible.
• Mobile assets, i.e. cars, motor vans, laptops, mobile machinery etc.
• Where specific potential for job displacement exists (i.e. where a new business could only prosper by diverting sales, output, or employment away an existing local business(es) already providing essentially the same offering, thus placing existing jobs and the viability of the existing business(es) at risk);
• Projects deemed to be capable of proceeding in any event without LEO assistance i.e. deadweight
• Projects essentially comprising importation and distribution
• Own Labour Research costs
  
  

Application Process

Check your eligibility

• Please review the eligibility criteria above before requesting financial support. If your business does not meet the criteria, we encourage you to explore our mentoring, training, networking and business supports. You may also wish to attend one of our Group Information Sessions for an overview of available supports.

Submit an Expression of Interest

• If you believe your business meets the eligibility criteria, complete our EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR FUNDING SUPPORTS.
• Your submission will be reviewed and a member of our team will contact you within approximately 10 working days. In most cases, this will involve a meeting with a Business Advisor to confirm eligibility and readiness to apply.
• Where it is clear that a business is not eligible, we will advise accordingly and direct you to alternative supports.

Meet with a Business Advisor

• You will be invited to meet with a Business Advisor as part of the eligibility review process.
• This meeting is an important step in confirming both your eligibility and your readiness to apply for grant funding. During the meeting, the Business Advisor will:
  • discuss your business and proposed project in more detail
  • provide full information on the relevant grant supports available
  • outline the application process and what will be required
  • assess whether your business is ready to proceed to application stage
• Following this meeting, if appropriate, you will be invited to submit a formal application.

Submit your formal application

• Following your meeting, you will receive a link to submit your formal application.
• Your application will be reviewed internally and, if ready, will be progressed to the independent Evaluation & Approvals Committee (EVAC) for decision.
• Please see below for further information on what will be required as part of a formal application.