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Financing Your Business in Ireland

Government Incentives

Ireland offers a number of financial incentives for businesses looking to invest in the economy, including a 25% tax credit, which can be claimed against qualifying research and development expenditure.

Irelands IDA (Industrial Development agency) also offers a variety of incentives in the form of funding or grants for inward investment. Further details can be found at www.idaireland.com

European Aid

European aid provides grants from the EU budget or from the European Development Fund. It is worth investigating possible grants, funds and programmes by following the link and looking under a particular section i.e. Agriculture, Energy or Audiovisual and Media.

It can be overwhelming when trying to find ways of obtaining finance. It is worth remembering that there are over 450 funding sources for reimbursable grants, aid schemes, individual fellow and traineeships, loans and guarantees in the EU. These can be awarded from such organisations like the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Investment Bank and others.

Helpful links are:
http://www.eubusiness.com/funding/eu-funding/european-funds/
and http://cordis.europa.eu/eu-funding-guide/finding-sources_en.html

For small to medium sized enterprises (SME) and the self employed there is The Participation Fund. These are EU backed loans that offer the following:

• The Starteo Loan for companies that have been operating for less than four years. The loan will be no more than €250,000 at a preferential rate of 3% for the first two years. The loan will be granted for five, seven, or ten years and will never be more than four times the investment made by the business.
• The Optimeo Loan Similar to the Starteo Loan is for companies of four years and over in age. The loan is limited to three times the investment made by the business.

Private Finance

• Bank Finance your bank may be able to help when raising finance. Before going to them you must have a well written and researched business plan. This will help the bank see how their finance will be used and potential growth in the business.
• Floating your company on the stock market maybe a possible way of raising more finance. This will depend on the type of business you set up. AIM, the junior partner of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), has established itself as the preferred route for younger companies wanting to go public.

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