Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to confirm that the 2025 funding round for the circular economy innovation grant scheme, CEIGS, was launched on 10 September. This scheme is a key driver of Ireland's transition to a circular economy supporting innovative projects led by social enterprises, voluntary and community organisations and small businesses. Since its launch in April 2021, we have awarded €1.8 million to 36 projects while tackling priority areas, such as food waste, plastics, single-use packaging, construction, textiles and general waste.

These projects are delivering real impact from BladeBridge repurposing wind turbines blades into public infrastructure to Happy Earth developing a compostable alternative to medical plastics. From 2025, the scheme will again be administered in partnership with Community Foundation Ireland with €650,000 in total funding available. Individual grants will range from €40,000 to €50,000 enabling a broad range of organisations to scale their ideas and deliver measurable circular outcomes. Projects under this round are expected to focus on plastics, construction circularity, food waste prevention and critical raw material recovery. These are all aligned to Ireland's circular economy strategy and our climate action plan. This scheme is not just about funding; it is also about accelerating innovation, empowering communities and shining a spotlight on many of these scalable solutions so they can be replicated nationwide.

See this speech in context