As part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Digital Transition Fund will drive transformative digitalisation of enterprise in Ireland, particularly amongst SMEs. The programme will help companies at all stages of their digitalisation journey.
Digital transformation
Embracing digital technologies is crucial for our post pandemic economic recovery. A competitive, innovative and resilient enterprise base is essential to provide high-quality jobs and employment opportunities for people to live and prosper in all regions. Businesses can harness digital technologies in many ways – including to better understand their customers, reduce their costs and improve their products.
The Digital Transition Fund is delivered under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which has been developed by the government so that Ireland can access funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ireland is expected to receive more than €900 million in grants over the lifetime of the Facility.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility is the largest component of NextGenerationEU, the European Union’s response to the global pandemic. The aim is to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the pandemic and to prepare for a post-Covid Europe that is greener, more digital, more resilient and fit to face the future.
Reasons to digitalise
Digital technologies have the power to transform small businesses, opening up new opportunities that were previously only available to businesses of scale. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the power of digital in building business resilience. Indeed, there is a substantial risk in companies not engaging with digital – the competitiveness and productivity gap between digitally-enabled firms and businesses with low levels of digital maturity must be addressed.
Digitalisation can deliver:
- reduced costs and increased productivity
- better products and services
- market expansion and diversification
- greater access to strategic resources
- greater access to innovation
- Online Platform Economy
- Climate Action: Digital technologies can support businesses as they work to reduce their climate impact
Help is available for businesses
Through the Digital Transition Fund, we will increase digitalisation of all businesses across products, processes, supply chains and business models. This will bring about productivity gains, access to new markets, increased innovation and improved competitiveness.
The Funding will be used to help companies at all stages of their digital journey – from the early days of simply going online to digitalisation of products and business processes, to facilitating exporting and to using digital technologies to develop new markets and business models.
Full details of the Digital Transition Fund are available on Digital Transition Fund / Ciste Trasdula Digiteach - Enterprise Ireland.
Please note, under the eligibility criteria of the Fund, selected projects must comply with relevant EU and national environmental legislation and in particular with the ‘Do no significant harm’ Technical Guidance (2021/C58/01). Specifically, the following projects are not eligible:
- activities related to fossil fuels, including downstream use1
- activities under the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) achieving projected greenhouse gas emissions that are not lower than the relevant benchmarks2
- activities related to waste landfills, incinerators3 and mechanical biological treatment plants4
- activities where the long-term disposal of waste may cause harm to the environment
1. Except projects under this measure in power and/or heat generation, as well as related transmission and distribution infrastructure, using natural gas, that are compliant with the conditions set out in Annex III of the ‘Do no significant harm’ Technical Guidance (2021/C58/01).
2. Where the activity supported achieves projected greenhouse gas emissions that are not substantially lower than the relevant benchmarks an explanation of the reasons why this is not possible should be provided. Benchmarks established for free allocation for activities falling within the scope of the Emissions Trading System, as set out in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/447.
3. This exclusion does not apply to actions under this measure in plants exclusively dedicated to treating non-recyclable hazardous waste, and to existing plants, where the actions under this measure are for the purpose of increasing energy efficiency, capturing exhaust gases for storage or use or recovering materials from incineration ashes, provided such actions under this measure do not result in an increase of the plants’ waste processing capacity or in an extension of the lifetime of the plants; for which evidence is provided at plant level.
4. This exclusion does not apply to actions under this measure in existing mechanical biological treatment plants, where the actions under this measure are for the purpose of increasing energy efficiency or retrofitting to recycling operations of separated waste to compost bio-waste and anaerobic digestion of bio-waste, provided such actions under this measure do not result in an increase of the plants’ waste processing capacity or in an extension of the lifetime of the plants; for which evidence is provided at plant level.
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