Microfinance Ireland Business Loan

What this scheme funds

Up to a fixed quote in loan finance for micro-enterprises refused bank credit — repayable, not free money.

• Working capital
• Equipment and stock
• Business expansion costs
• Cash-flow smoothing for a viable business

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

• Refinancing existing debt in most cases
• Businesses with no repayment capacity

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by Microfinance Ireland, not by Digital Bridge.

• Micro-enterprise with fewer than 10 employees and turnover under a fixed quote million
• Evidence of a bank refusal or inability to obtain credit
• Demonstrable capacity to repay

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Commonly ten working days to a decision once a complete application is submitted.

• Apply through your Local Enterprise Office to access the reduced rate
• Provide the bank refusal evidence
• Submit business plan, projections and bank statements
• Receive a credit decision and, if approved, a loan agreement

Evidence you will need

Applications are usually delayed by missing paperwork rather than by weak projects.

• Bank refusal or equivalent evidence
• Six months of bank statements
• Cash-flow projections
• Tax clearance

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

• No evidence of repayment capacity
• No bank refusal
• Unrealistic projections

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Loan finance, not grant aid) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

• Website, e-commerce or AI build financed rather than grant-aided — list from €1,200 to a fixed quote, illustrative net cost Loan finance, not grant aid — you repay the full amount plus interest

Who decides this grant, and what we are responsible for

Microfinance Ireland decides eligibility, approval and payment under this scheme. Digital Bridge supplies the work and the documentation an assessor asks for from the supplier side.

• Digital Bridge does not administer, assess, approve, pay or appeal any grant. Every decision is made by the funding body named on the scheme, under its own published rules.
• This section is general information, not financial, tax, legal or grant-writing advice. It is not an application, a pre-approval, or any form of assurance that you will be funded.
• Scheme rates, ceilings and eligibility change without notice and several supports are administered locally, so your Local Enterprise Office or agency may apply different rules to the ones published here. Confirm everything with the funder in writing before you commit.
• Our questionnaire is a deterministic guide based only on the answers you give. It cannot see your accounts, your sector classification, your state-aid position or your previous awards, so it can suggest a scheme you are ultimately found ineligible for.
• If an application is refused, delayed, reduced or clawed back, our fees for work you have instructed remain payable. We recommend you do not instruct chargeable work until your funder confirms in writing what it will support.
• Costs incurred before a funder receives your application are almost always ineligible. Timing is your responsibility, and we will always tell you when we think you should wait.

How the Microfinance Ireland Loan works in practice

Microfinance Ireland lends where the banks decline. It is a loan, repayable with interest, and it is not a grant under any reading — a distinction worth stating plainly because it is regularly misunderstood. It serves microenterprises with fewer than ten employees, typically after a refusal from a mainstream lender, and referral through a Local Enterprise Office can attract a reduced rate. Because it is credit, the assessment is a credit assessment: repayment capacity, trading history, personal circumstances. Businesses treat it as a last resort, but for a viable company with a temporary funding gap and a clear use of proceeds, it is considerably cheaper than the alternatives that usually follow a bank refusal.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

When a project we are quoting for is to be funded by borrowing, we scope it differently. Debt has to be serviced from trading, so the first phase should be the part that affects revenue or cost soonest, and the nice-to-have work should be deferred until the loan is comfortable. We are willing to phase payments to match a drawdown schedule and to say clearly when a proposed project will not generate the return needed to service the borrowing. Advising a small business to borrow for a project we do not believe pays back would be poor practice regardless of the invoice attached.

When is a Microfinance Ireland loan the right instrument?

This is debt, not a grant, and it should be assessed as debt. It exists for viable small businesses that have been declined by a bank, and the interest rate reflects that position. It suits a specific case well: a business with demonstrable trading, a clear use of funds and a repayment plan that works on conservative assumptions. It suits a business trying to trade through a structural problem very badly, because the repayments arrive whether or not the plan works. Before applying, write the repayment schedule into your own cash-flow forecast and stress it — a quiet quarter, a late debtor, a rate you cannot renegotiate. If the forecast only works in the good case, the loan is not the answer.

Is this a grant?

No, and it is important not to confuse the two. It is a loan with interest, repayable in full. It is included here because businesses regularly search for grants when what actually fits their situation is credit.

Why apply through the LEO?

Applications routed through a Local Enterprise Office normally carry a lower interest rate than applying directly, and the adviser can sanity-check the projections first.

Do we need a bank refusal before applying?

Microfinance Ireland is designed for businesses unable to obtain conventional bank credit, and evidence of a refusal is commonly part of the process. Confirm the current requirement directly, and ask your Local Enterprise Office about referral, which can affect the rate.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against Microfinance Ireland (https://microfinanceireland.ie/) on 2026-08-21. Reviewed quarterly. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Digital Bridge is a supplier, not the awarding body. Eligibility, approval and payment are decided solely by the funding body named on each scheme. Figures below are the published scheme parameters as at the review date shown, and net costs are arithmetic illustrations of the published rate applied to our published prices. Always confirm current rules with the funder before you commit to any spend, because expenditure incurred before an application is received is almost always ineligible.

How we decide what to quote for Microfinance Ireland Business Loan

Digital Bridge delivers this work from Gorey Business Park in County Wexford on a fixed written scope — one price, one delivery date — and the client owns the finished work outright. Microfinance Ireland lends up to a fixed quote to micro-enterprises that have been declined credit by a bank. Before a figure is given, four questions are answered in order, and a named person signs the scope off — it is never generated automatically.

1. Is this the right job at all? We look at what you already have online, whether the domain and Google Business Profile are in your own name, and what Microfinance Ireland Business Loan customers currently ask you for. If a repair or a single page would solve it, we quote that instead.
2. What does the work have to achieve first? The scope is written around one outcome — enquiries, bookings, orders or credibility — and anything else is listed as optional so it can be dropped without renegotiating.
3. What will it cost and when will it be live? Page count, content readiness, integrations and whether photography or copy still has to be produced set the price and the date, both fixed in writing before work starts.
4. How will people in Microfinance Ireland Business Loan find it afterwards? Local search setup is included in a build; ongoing SEO is a separate optional retainer you can start or stop with notice.

Checkable facts behind this Microfinance Ireland Business Loan page

Author and reviewer: Joey Bray, founder of Digital Bridge, building and maintaining Irish business websites since 2016. Studio address: Gorey Business Park, Gorey, Co. Wexford. Phone: 085 224 1848. Every claim below can be checked before you speak to us.

• Published starting prices, not estimates released after a sales call — see the pricing page for the full ladder.
• Live client sites you can open and test yourself are listed in the work section.
• One contact from first call to launch, rather than an account handler relaying messages.
• A plain-text mirror of this page is published for AI assistants at the same path with a .md extension.

Helpful links and official sources for Microfinance Ireland Business Loan

Primary sources you can check yourself. We link the publisher rather than a summary of it.

• EU Artificial Intelligence Act, regulatory framework — European Commission — https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai
• Data Protection Commission, guidance for organisations — https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/organisations
• AI Risk Management Framework — NIST — https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework
• Local Enterprise Office business supports — https://www.localenterprise.ie/Discover-Business-Supports/
• Cybersecurity guidance for SMEs — ENISA — https://www.enisa.europa.eu/topics/cybersecurity-education/smes