The Trading Online Voucher is gone. Here's what replaced it.

The Trading Online Voucher page has been removed from the national Local Enterprise Office website, and county LEO pages no longer carry the scheme. Digital for Business and the Grow Digital Voucher have taken its place in the LEO supports. We couldn't find an announcement of the change, which may be why so few people know about it. Check the Digitalisation section of localenterprise.ie and you'll find only the two new supports listed.

Meanwhile, lots of other websites still promote ‘TOV 2026’ at €2,500 with the old rules. That information is out of date, and applying on the strength of it will waste your time.

There are two pieces, and they come in a fixed order. Digital for Business is a free LEO consultancy: a consultant looks at how your business uses digital tools and hands you a written roadmap. The Grow Digital Voucher is the grant that follows. You can only apply for the voucher if your business has completed a Digital for Business project within the previous two years, so the consultancy is the door into the funding, and it costs nothing.

The headline figures, confirmed on the official pages in August 2026:

The voucher funds two things: subscriptions to software you buy off the shelf, as long as it's new to your business (up to one year's fees), and the training or IT configuration needed to put that software to work, capped at half the project cost. The official examples include e-commerce platforms, booking and payment systems, CRM, cloud accounting and AI analytics.

The rule that catches website plans: the scheme states plainly that it does not support bespoke website development. If you want a fully custom site, the voucher won't pay for it. A website built on a subscription platform is a different story. A Shopify store, for example, involves a platform subscription and configuration work, which lines up with the two cost categories the voucher covers. Whether your particular project qualifies is your LEO's call, so ask them before you commit to anything.

Digital marketing costs such as ads or SEO retainers aren't on the list of eligible costs at all, which is a change from the old voucher.

Apply before you spend a single euro. The scheme is explicit that committing to, ordering or paying for anything before approval can make the whole project ineligible. The grant is also paid in arrears: you pay the subscription first, then claim.

Two things the old voucher required no longer appear in the published rules: the mandatory information webinar, and the requirement for supplier quotes. Neither is mentioned in the current scheme material. That may simply reflect the shift to subscription software, but the application form itself isn't published online, so ask your LEO what paperwork they want before you assume either way.

If your plan is a custom site or system, budget for it without grant support. Our Starter website is €690, which is less than the old voucher was worth, so the maths without a grant is friendlier than it used to be.

If an online shop is the goal, look hard at a subscription platform. We build online shops on Shopify, which is the kind of setup described above. Start with the free Digital for Business consultancy, get the roadmap, and raise the voucher question with your LEO before any money moves. We can put a quote together to fit that process.

Your first call is Local Enterprise Office Meath at the Thrive Centre of Business Excellence, Dublin Road, Navan (046 9097000, localenterprise@meathcoco.ie). Ask about Digital for Business. There's also a free scorecard at growdigital.gov.ie that you fill in yourself, if you want a sense of where your business stands before talking to anyone. If a website or online shop is on your roadmap, ask us what it would cost, with or without the voucher.