If you have landed here looking for the Trading Online Voucher, here is the honest update: the scheme closed to new applications at the end of 2024. For years it was the go-to grant for small Irish businesses getting online, a match-funded contribution toward a new website or online shop through your Local Enterprise Office. It has since been replaced by a different scheme, the Grow Digital Voucher, which works in its own way. Here is what changed, and what it means if you were hoping for a hand getting online.
One thing up front: grant schemes change, terms get reviewed, and eligibility rules get tweaked. Everything below is accurate at the time of writing, but before you count on anything, confirm the current details with your own Local Enterprise Office. It is their scheme, and they are genuinely helpful.
What happened to the Trading Online Voucher?
The Trading Online Voucher Scheme ran for years through the Local Enterprise Offices and helped a lot of small businesses take their first proper step online, usually a new website or the ability to sell and take bookings. It closed to new applications at the end of 2024 as part of a wider refresh of the State's digital supports. If an older article, quote or leaflet still points you toward it, that is why it no longer lines up: it has been retired.
What replaced it: the Grow Digital Voucher
The support that has taken its place is the Grow Digital Voucher, again run through your Local Enterprise Office. Like the old scheme it is match funding aimed at helping small businesses take a digital step, and it sits alongside a free digital assessment designed to work out where your business would benefit most. The headline idea is the same, help small businesses grow digitally, but the detail of what it funds has moved, which matters a lot if you were expecting the old website grant.
How the new grant is different
This is the part worth understanding. The Trading Online Voucher was, in practice, money toward building your online presence, a website or online shop from a supplier like us. The Grow Digital Voucher is aimed more at adopting digital tools: business software subscriptions and the expert help to set them up and train your team, rather than paying a studio to design and build a bespoke site.
The old voucher helped pay for a website. The new one leans toward software and the training to use it.
So if your plan is a custom-designed website, the new scheme may not apply the way the old one did, which is worth checking before you assume either way. If your plan involves adopting an online-shop platform, a CRM or similar off-the-shelf software, it is much more likely to be a fit.
Who is eligible?
The scheme is aimed at small businesses, and the usual criteria are:
- You are a small business, broadly up to around 50 employees.
- You have been trading for at least six months.
- You have completed a free Digital for Business assessment or project (this is a prerequisite, more on it below).
- Your business is solvent and tax-compliant.
- You are not a client of Enterprise Ireland or the IDA.
Eligibility can shift, so check the current criteria with your Local Enterprise Office before you get your hopes up or rule yourself out.
What it funds (and what it doesn't)
The Grow Digital Voucher is geared toward digital tools and the help to use them. Commonly eligible costs include:
- New business software subscriptions, such as an e-commerce platform, a CRM, accounting software or cybersecurity tools.
- Expert configuration and setup of those systems.
- Staff training to actually use them.
Typically outside the scheme are bespoke, custom-built software, regulatory-compliance systems, hardware, and ongoing marketing like recurring ad spend. As with the old voucher, it is about building digital capability once, not running it forever.
How to apply
The order matters here, because spending too early can make you ineligible:
- Start with the free Digital for Business assessment, which gives you a short digital-readiness scorecard and points you toward where a voucher would help.
- Talk to your Local Enterprise Office about applying, and do this before you commit to or pay for anything.
- Submit your application with the details and quotes the LEO asks for.
- Once approved, go ahead with the work and claim the voucher back against the eligible spend.
A good supplier will be used to this and can give you a clear, itemised quote in the format the LEO expects.
Where we come in
We are Initiate Digital, a web and design studio in Wexford working with businesses across Ireland. We will tell you honestly whether a grant is likely to fit what you actually need, help you get set up on the kind of software the Grow Digital Voucher supports, and give you a clear, LEO-ready quote where one makes sense. And if what you really need is a custom website the grant won't cover, we will say so plainly rather than talk you into chasing funding for its own sake. Start with a quick, no-pressure chat, and if you want the wider picture, our guide to what a website costs in Ireland is a good companion read.