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. Its place in the LEO supports has been taken by Digital for Business and the Grow Digital Voucher. There was no press release announcing the change, which is why so few people have noticed: the scheme was retired quietly, and the evidence is on the official pages themselves. Check the Digitalisation section of localenterprise.ie and you'll find only the two new supports listed.

Meanwhile you'll still find plenty of third-party sites promoting '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 That information is out of date, and applying on the strength of it will waste your time.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 this month:

The voucher funds two things: subscriptions for off-the-shelf software that'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-based 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-coded 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.

Also worth knowing: digital marketing costs such as ads or SEO retainers are not listed among the 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 confirm the paperwork requirements with your LEO rather than assuming.

If your plan is a custom-built site or system, budget for it without grant support. Worth noting: our own starter websites begin at €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 store is the goal, the subscription-platform route deserves a serious look. We build e-commerce stores on Shopify, where the platform subscription and setup work map onto the voucher's eligible cost categories. Start with the free Digital for Business consultancy, get the roadmap, and raise the voucher question with your LEO before any money moves. We're glad to shape a quote around 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 self-assessment scorecard at growdigital.gov.ie if you want a sense of where your business stands before talking to anyone. And if a website or online store is part of your roadmap, talk to us about what it would cost, with or without the voucher.