If you have been told you can get €2,500 towards a new website from your Local Enterprise Office, that information is out of date. The Trading Online Voucher closed to applications in December 2024. Its replacement funds something quite different, and the difference matters before you commission any work.
This is written from the published scheme documents. Where something is not stated publicly, it says so.
What replaced the Trading Online Voucher
The Grow Digital Voucher, administered by the Local Enterprise Offices.
| Rate | 50% of eligible costs |
| Minimum grant | €500 |
| Maximum grant | €5,000 |
| Vouchers per business | 2, capped at €5,000 cumulative |
| Paid | In arrears, on proof of payment |
The eligibility gate most guides leave out
To apply for a Grow Digital Voucher you must have completed a LEO "Digital for Business" project within the previous two years.
Digital for Business is a separate, free support: an approved consultant works with you and produces a digital roadmap. If you have not done it, you are not eligible for the voucher yet - and that is the first thing to sort out, not the website quote.
The other criteria:
- 1 to 50 paid employees
- Trading for at least 6 months
- Registered in your LEO's area
- Current Revenue tax clearance
- Not an Enterprise Ireland or IDA client
What it funds
Two categories only.
1. Software subscriptions. The software must be new to your business, off the shelf, and the grant covers a maximum of one year of subscription. Expanding a licence you already have does not qualify. Eligible examples include e-commerce platforms, CRM, online booking and payments, order management, e-invoicing, cyber security, cloud accounting, and analytics software including AI systems.
2. Training and IT configuration. Setting up and integrating that new software, or training your team on it. Combined, this can be no more than 50% of the overall project cost.
What it does not fund
This is the part that catches people out. The official scheme documents state:
"The Grow Digital Voucher does not support bespoke website development."
"Custom or bespoke software is not eligible for grant support."
So if you were planning to put a custom website build, a bespoke app, or a purpose-built automation through the voucher - you cannot. That is not a technicality or an interpretation. It is written into the eligible expenditure rules.
The timing rule that voids claims
Your application must be submitted before any expenditure is incurred or any activity commences.
Sign a contract, pay a deposit, or let a supplier start work before the application goes in, and you lose eligibility for that project. This catches more businesses than any other rule, because the natural instinct is to get a quote, agree it, and then look for funding.
Order of operations: pick your software → get quotes → apply → wait for approval → then start.
Note also that the grant is paid in arrears on proof of payment. You fund the work first and claim afterwards, so plan the cash flow.
Quotes
Your LEO will expect three quotations for any spend expected to exceed €5,000. Below that, one verbal quote is generally accepted. Confirm with your own LEO, as practice varies.
What about bigger projects?
If the voucher will not cover what you actually need, the ladder above it looks like this:
- Digital Discovery (Enterprise Ireland) - 80% up to a €5,000 grant, for 10+ full-time staff, and for non-EI clients also requires that you are in manufacturing or trading internationally in an eligible services sector. It funds consultancy to explore digital opportunities and explicitly excludes implementation and website development.
- Digital Process Innovation (Enterprise Ireland) - 50% up to €150,000. This one does fund implementation, but it is aimed at larger and Enterprise Ireland client companies.
- European Digital Innovation Hubs - test-before-invest support, often free or heavily subsidised.
The gap nobody talks about
Read that list again and a pattern appears. Digital for Business pays a consultant to write you a roadmap. Digital Discovery pays a consultant to explore your options. The Grow Digital Voucher pays for off-the-shelf software and the setup around it.
Almost none of it pays for someone to build the thing your roadmap recommends.
That is a real and slightly odd gap in Irish enterprise supports. Plenty of businesses come out of Digital for Business holding a sensible plan, and then discover the follow-on funding will not cover building any of it.
The practical answer is to separate the work into two parts: the voucher-eligible portion, which is off-the-shelf software plus its configuration and training, and the bespoke layer, which is ordinary commercial spend. Two invoices, clean claim, no ambiguity for your LEO.
One thing we could not verify
Whether a supplier established outside Ireland can be paid under the Grow Digital Voucher. No published source we could find states this either way, and the full scheme terms sit behind a login. If that matters to you, ask your own LEO in writing before committing to anything - and expect the answer to vary between offices.
Before you commission anything
- Have you completed a Digital for Business project in the last two years?
- Is the software genuinely new to your business, and off the shelf?
- Is the config and training portion under 50% of the project cost?
- Have you separated bespoke development into its own invoice?
- Has your application gone in before any work starts?
- Can you fund the work up front and claim afterwards?
Check the current terms on the Local Enterprise Office Grow Digital page - schemes change, and this article is a snapshot.
Working out what is actually worth building? Get a free audit - we will tell you which parts of a plan are worth doing, which we would skip, and which might qualify for support.