Trading for Impact: Minister Buttimer Announces €4m ‘Sustaining Social Enterprise Scheme 2026/27’
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From: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht
- Published on: 17 April 2026
- Last updated on: 17 April 2026
- Innovative scheme designed to support social enterprise development and growth by funding the recruitment of key staff members.
- Social Enterprises will deliver projects that will increase their traded income and their financial sustainability over a 23-month funding period.
Minister for Community Development and Charities, Jerry Buttimer, TD, today (17 April 2026) announced the launch of the €4m Dormant Accounts Funded ‘Sustaining Social Enterprise Scheme’.
Many social enterprises that are trading on an ongoing basis often face constraints in increasing their traded income due to limited staffing capacity and competing operational priorities. This Fund is designed to address those constraints by enabling organisations to invest strategically in the people and structures required to embed income generation as a core and sustainable part of their business model.
Growing, strengthening and increasing the impact of social enterprises within communities is a key goal of the Government’s Social Enterprise Policy – ‘Trading for Impact’.
Making the announcement today, Minister Buttimer said:
“The ‘Dormant Accounts Funded Sustaining Social Enterprises Scheme’ will provide much-needed support to social enterprises nationwide and enable them to grow their traded income in a sustainable way and strengthen their impact on the communities they serve.
“Projects may include the employment of a staff member to increase traded income or by employing a person in a role, for example in Admin or HR, that will free-up time for an existing member of staff to focus on increasing their traded income generation. The scheme is open to individual social enterprises or across several social enterprises as part of a shared services model.”
The Minister added:
“It is envisaged that up to 35 projects will benefit from this funding, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the social enterprises themselves, the communities they operate in, and on their customers and service users.
“I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the work that so many social enterprises are performing in communities across Ireland. Social enterprises play a key role in creating jobs, providing goods and services, and delivering real benefits in communities.”
The Scheme will be administered on behalf of the department by Pobal.
Speaking about the announcement, Anna Shakespeare, CEO of Pobal said:
“Pobal are pleased to support the DAF Sustaining Social Enterprise Scheme, which will help organisations strengthen their income streams and build long-term sustainability. By investing in capacity and shared services, this initiative will enable social enterprises to focus on growth and continue delivering meaningful impact in communities across Ireland.”
Applicants must first, through an open call, satisfy that they are eligible to avail of the scheme, before being invited to submit a full application.
Details of the scheme, and how to apply, can be found on Pobal’s website: www.pobal.ie
Notes
Social Enterprises:
Social enterprises are businesses that work primarily to improve the lives of people. Their core objective is to achieve a social, societal, or environmental impact. Like other businesses, social enterprises pursue their objectives by trading in goods and services on an ongoing basis.
However, surpluses generated by social enterprises are re-invested into achieving their core social objectives, rather than maximising profit for their owners. They frequently work to support disadvantaged groups such as the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, the Traveller community, etc., or to address issues such as food poverty, social housing, or environmental matters.
National Social Enterprise Policy
Trading for Impact National Social Enterprise Policy 2024 – 2027 was launched by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht in July 2024. The policy is designed to help cultivate and sustain strong, impactful social enterprises in Ireland, that enrich the social, environmental and economic well-being of people living in our communities.
The Policy is focused on five main objectives:
- Building Awareness of Social Enterprise
- Growing and Sustaining Social Enterprise
- Achieving Better Policy Alignment
- National and International Engagement
- Impact Measurement
Dormant Accounts Fund
The Dormant Accounts Acts 2001-2012, together with the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003, provide a framework for the administration of unclaimed accounts in credit institutions (i.e. banks, building societies and An Post) and unclaimed life assurance policies in insurance undertakings.
The main purpose of the legislation is to reunite account or policy holders with their funds in credit institutions or insurance undertakings and in this regard, these bodies are required to take steps to identify and contact the owners of dormant accounts and unclaimed life assurance policies.
However, in order to utilise the un-used funds in dormant accounts and unclaimed policies to best effect, the legislation also introduced a scheme for the disbursement of funds that are unlikely to be reclaimed from dormant accounts and unclaimed policies for the purposes of measures to assist:
- the personal and social development of persons who are economically or socially disadvantaged;
- the educational development of persons who are educationally disadvantaged; or
- persons with a disability.
Social Enterprises work in many ways to assist people in these categories.