The Problem It Was Built to Solve
Ask any Irish SME owner about their experience of accessing government business supports and you will hear a version of the same story. The supports exist — grants, loans, training programmes, mentoring, export assistance, sustainability funding, R&D credits and more — but finding out which ones apply to your specific business, in your specific sector, at your specific stage of development, has historically required a level of patience, research and institutional knowledge that many busy business owners simply do not have the time to invest. The supports were scattered across 19 different government departments and state agencies, each with its own website, its own application process and its own eligibility criteria. The result was that the businesses most likely to benefit from government support were also the least likely to know it existed or how to access it.
The National Enterprise Hub was built to fix exactly that problem. Launched on 10 July 2024 by Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke at an event in Tangent at Trinity College Dublin, it is the first time in Irish business support history that the full landscape of government supports has been consolidated into a single, searchable, advisor-supported platform — available at neh.gov.ie or by phone at 01 727 2100, every working day, staffed by experts and trained advisors who will guide any business owner through the supports available to them.
What the Hub Actually Is
The National Enterprise Hub is a free, all-of-government service — an initiative of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and Enterprise Ireland — that brings together information and resources on over 250 government supports from 30 different departments and state agencies. The range of what it covers is extensive. Grants for cashflow, expansion and productivity. Loans and alternative finance. Training and management development programmes. Mentoring and expert advisory services. Export assistance. Sustainability and energy efficiency supports. Research and development funding. Tailored supports for specific sectors — retail, tourism and hospitality, food and beverages, construction, manufacturing, professional services. And specific supports for underrepresented groups, including women in business and entrepreneurs with disabilities.
The platform works in three ways. The online hub at neh.gov.ie allows business owners to search for relevant supports by sector, business size, stage of development and the specific challenge they are trying to address — producing a curated list of applicable supports rather than requiring them to navigate the full landscape independently. The dedicated phone line connects directly to specialist advisors who can discuss individual circumstances and identify the most relevant options in a live conversation. And the live chat function on the website provides the same access for those who prefer written interaction.
Minister Burke, speaking at the launch, captured the rationale directly: "Running a business isn't easy, but accessing government supports should be. Our research shows that small businesses are facing many challenges including rising costs, attracting and retaining talent and not having the time to focus on the future of their business. The National Enterprise Hub is a new single source of government supports for businesses. From simple, easy-to-access grants, to expert advice and training, we've brought all of this information together in one place and have a helpful team of experts and advisors who will guide businesses every step of the way."
The Partner Network: Who Is Behind It
The strength of the National Enterprise Hub rests significantly on the breadth of the partner network that it aggregates and navigates on behalf of Irish businesses. The agencies and departments represented within the hub cover the full spectrum of Irish business support infrastructure.
Enterprise Ireland — the agency that manages the hub's operation and provides the staffing for its advisor team — brings its export development programmes, startup investment, competitiveness supports and management development resources to the platform. The Local Enterprise Offices, operating through all 31 local authorities, provide the first-stop-shop for small business support at county level — covering business planning, grant applications, mentoring, training and access to the broader support ecosystem. IDA Ireland brings its inward investment facilitation and partnership programmes. Skillnet Ireland contributes the workforce development and training resources of its 68 Business Networks. SOLAS provides further education and training supports. MicroFinance Ireland, which attended the one-year anniversary event alongside Fáilte Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, provides loan financing specifically designed for microenterprises that may not qualify for mainstream commercial lending.
The sector-specific partner dimension is particularly valuable. Fáilte Ireland — which has specifically positioned itself as a proud partner of the National Enterprise Hub — provides the full range of tourism and hospitality supports through the platform, making it the single point of access for Irish tourism businesses seeking government assistance. Bord Bia brings food industry support. Bord Iascaigh Mhara provides resources for seafood businesses. SEAI contributes its energy efficiency grant programmes. Teagasc supports agricultural enterprises. The Design and Crafts Council Ireland serves creative businesses. InterTrade Ireland facilitates cross-border trade support. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Finance and the Department of Social Protection all contribute their relevant business support programmes.
The result is a partner network of a scale and diversity that no previous Irish business support initiative has assembled under a single roof — and that makes the hub significantly more useful to businesses operating at the intersection of multiple support categories than any individual agency's platform could be.
The First Year: What the Numbers Show
The first-year results of the National Enterprise Hub, published in July 2025 at the anniversary event, provided the most concrete early evidence of whether the platform was delivering on its promise. The headline figure — 6,500 SMEs directly supported in the first 12 months — met and exceeded the targets that had been set internally for the hub's first year of operation. Conor O'Donovan, Head of Start-Ups and the National Enterprise Hub at Enterprise Ireland, confirmed that "SME engagement with the National Enterprise Hub has met and exceeded our targets to date."
Of those 6,500 businesses, the majority operated in tourism and hospitality, retail and consumer products, food, health and beauty, professional services and the construction sector — a spread that reflects both the sectors most actively seeking government support in 2024 and 2025 and the sectors where the hub's promotion has been most active. The top grants accessed by businesses ranged in value from €3,000 to €7,000 and focused primarily on cashflow, business expansion and productivity — exactly the categories that the hub's research had identified as the most pressing concerns for Irish SMEs navigating the elevated cost environment of 2024 and 2025.
Beyond the direct business support figure, the hub's online platform attracted over 220,000 active users in its first 12 months — a figure that reflects awareness building well ahead of the immediate transaction volume, as business owners explore what is available to them before making formal contact with an advisor or applying for a specific support.
One of the most important strategic aims of the hub — articulated clearly by O'Donovan at the anniversary event — was specifically to reach businesses that had not previously accessed government support, rather than simply serving existing users of the agencies' individual programmes. "One of the main aims of the Hub was to engage with businesses who haven't availed of government supports to date and to make the process of availing of government supports faster and easier," he said. The evidence that a significant portion of the 6,500 businesses supported in year one were first-time users of the government support system represents the most meaningful early validation of the hub's central premise.
Reducing Red Tape: The Next Phase
The first-year anniversary announcement was accompanied by a commitment to the next strategic priority for the hub — the simplification of grant application processes. Minister Burke was direct about what this means in practice: "My focus now with the NEH is on reducing administrative burdens and red tape for businesses by consolidating multiple grant applications into a single, simplified process. We must redouble our efforts to simplify processes for businesses and make sure that we think about small businesses first."
That commitment addresses one of the most persistent criticisms of Irish government business support — that even when businesses find the right support, the application process itself is complex, time-consuming and requires documentation that small businesses with limited administrative capacity find difficult to compile. Consolidating multiple grant applications into a single process would represent a meaningful improvement in the practical accessibility of supports for the businesses the hub is trying to serve — not just pointing them to what is available, but removing the friction that prevents them from successfully completing the application.
The hub has also been expanding its support offer since launch. The original 180 supports documented at the July 2024 launch have grown to over 250 by mid-2026 — a 39% increase in the scope of what the platform navigates — reflecting both the addition of new government programmes and the incorporation of agency supports that were not included in the initial launch.
What It Means for Irish Businesses Right Now
For any Irish business owner who has not yet engaged with the National Enterprise Hub, the practical message is straightforward: the supports that exist for your business are more numerous and more accessible than they have ever been, and the hub exists specifically to help you find and access them without having to navigate the individual agency landscape independently.
The supports available through the platform cover businesses at every stage of development — from a first-time entrepreneur using the Local Enterprise Office pre-startup advisory service to an established SME accessing Skillnet Ireland training programmes to a scaling company working with Enterprise Ireland on international market development. They cover businesses in every sector — from a Waterford food producer accessing Bord Bia market development supports to a Kerry hospitality business using Fáilte Ireland tourism investment programmes to a Dublin retailer accessing LEO productivity grants. And they cover businesses facing every type of challenge — from immediate cashflow pressure to medium-term competitiveness investment to long-term sustainability compliance.
The hub is free to use, available online at neh.gov.ie, by phone at 01 727 2100 and via live chat on the website. The advisor team is available Monday to Friday during business hours, and the online search function is available at any time.
The Bottom Line
The National Enterprise Hub is two years into its operation and its first-year results — 6,500 SMEs directly supported, 220,000 active online users, 250 government supports from 30 agencies aggregated in one place — confirm that the concept is working. For the Irish business community, the practical significance is simple: if you are running a business in Ireland and you have not yet checked what the hub can do for you, you are almost certainly leaving money, training and expert support on the table. The platform was built for businesses exactly like yours. The team is there to help. The next step is neh.gov.ie.