EIIS: The Numbers
Insights Employment Investment Incentive Scheme
EIIS: The Numbers
Six years of Revenue data on Ireland's most generous tax relief — and what the figures actually show.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute tax or investment advice. EIIS is a high-risk investment and relief is subject to conditions being met by both the investor and the investee company — always consult a qualified tax adviser before investing.
The EIIS scheme has become wildly popular in recent years. I may be biased, but I believe it is the single greatest tax relief available to any individual in Ireland — and I include pension relief in that.
Yet for all that popularity, we rarely see the facts and figures that show just how far the scheme has actually come. We set out to find them. Drawing on the public records published by the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance, we pieced together a picture of EIIS investment in Ireland over the last six years.
Here's what we found.
The headlineA market that has more than doubled
In 2019, roughly €57 million of EIIS investment flowed into Irish companies. By 2023 that figure had climbed to almost €156 million — an increase of nearly 174% in four years. Across the full 2019–2024 window, more than €650 million of private capital has been channelled into Irish businesses through the scheme.
That is not a niche relief quietly ticking along in the background. It is one of the more significant sources of risk capital available to Irish SMEs, and it has grown at a pace that most funding channels would envy.
| Year | EIIS investment | Companies | Av. per company | Investors | Av. per investor | Cost to Exchequer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | €56.9m | 110 | €516,860 | — | — | €22.7m |
| 2020 | €84.4m | 127 | €664,584 | 2,196 | €38,435 | €32.6m |
| 2021 | €107.2m | 169 | €634,408 | 3,133 | €34,221 | €43.8m |
| 2022 | €122.3m | 161 | €759,822 | 3,195 | €38,288 | €52.5m |
| 2023 | €155.6m | 197 | €789,922 | 3,323 | €46,830 | €56.8m |
| 2024 | €128.3m | 164 | €782,343 | n/a | — | €51.3m |
Investment and company figures relate to EII relief specifically. Investor numbers and the Exchequer cost for 2020–2023 are as published by Revenue; Revenue has not yet released 2024 investor numbers, and the cost figures for 2019 and 2024 are calculated at the standard 40% rate of relief.
Context to the numbersThe 2023 rule change
Two features of how EIIS works are worth bearing in mind when reading the table above, because both leave a clear mark on the figures.
Feature one
A new tiered structure of relief
Prompted by revisions to the underlying EU State-aid framework — the General Block Exemption Regulation — fund investments moved to rates of 35% or 50% depending on the investment, while direct investment continued to attract 40% through a transitional period.
Feature two
Funds deploy a year later
EIIS funds invest their capital in the year after they raise it. The fund we raised in 2023 was deployed — and so appears in the national figures — in 2024. The investment Revenue records in any year largely reflects the prior year's fundraising.
The rule change was significant, and it created a spell of genuine uncertainty as investors and funds alike took time to understand the new regime. Put the two features together and the recent data makes sense. 2023 was the single biggest year on record for EIIS investment overall, as direct investment surged in the final year of the 40% rate. But EIIS fund fundraising itself dipped in 2023 — and, deploying a year later, that dip fed directly into the 2024 decline.
Breadth of participationThousands of investors, every year
One number that stands out is the sheer breadth of participation. In each of 2021, 2022 and 2023, more than 3,000 individual investors put money to work through EIIS. In 2020 the figure was just under that mark, at 2,196.
3,323
Individual investors backed Irish companies through EIIS in 2023 — the highest figure on record.
These are not institutions or funds appearing in the data. They are individual taxpayers, backing early-stage and growing Irish companies, and receiving relief at their marginal rate for doing so. It is one of the few reliefs that genuinely aligns the interests of the individual investor, the Exchequer and the Irish economy in the same transaction.
The return on reliefThe Exchequer maths
For all the money mobilised, the cost to the State is modest. In 2023, EIIS relief cost the Exchequer around €56.8 million — and sat alongside roughly €156 million of private capital deployed into Irish companies.
€2.70
Of private investment reached Irish businesses for every €1 of income-tax relief granted in 2023.
The Quiet Genius Of The Scheme
It does not ask the State to pick winners or write cheques directly. It simply invites private individuals to take the risk, and shares a portion of that risk through the tax system.
Behind the totalsHundreds of Irish companies backed
Behind those investment totals sit real businesses. Over the 2019–2024 period, 514 distinct Irish companies raised capital through EIIS — and the number backed each year has broadly climbed in step with the money, from 110 companies in 2019 to a peak of 197 in 2023.
What is striking is that the growth has not simply been more companies raising small amounts. The average raise per company has risen too, from around €517,000 in 2019 to close to €790,000 in 2023. Companies are turning to EIIS for more meaningful sums, and many are coming back: more than four in ten of those 514 companies raised across two or more years, using the scheme as a sustained funding rail rather than a one-off. Taken across their full EIIS journey, the average company backed over this period has raised in the region of €1.27 million.
That, to us, is the real story in the data. EIIS is not just moving money — it is building durable funding relationships with a growing base of Irish enterprises.
The first decline2024: the first fall
After four consecutive years of growth, 2024 brought the first decline in the series. EIIS investment fell from almost €156 million in 2023 to roughly €128 million — a drop of close to 18%.
As the context above explains, this was less a loss of appetite for the scheme than a product of its transition: funds had smaller 2023 raises to deploy, and many investors paused to get to grips with the new rules. Whether 2024 proves a genuine turning point or simply a pause is something we will be watching closely — and it is worth remembering that the most recent year's figures typically firm up as filings complete.
The recovery2025: the market buoyant again
By 2025 the new regime had begun to settle — and with relief of up to 50% now firmly in play, demand has returned in force. If our own experience is any guide, the effect has been striking.
Our EIIS funds have grown steadily since inception in 2022 — but 2024 and 2025 have been transformational:
| Quintas EIIS fund | Capital raised |
|---|---|
| 2022 | €3.46m |
| 2023 | €3.23m |
| 2024 | €7.82m |
| 2025 | €17.14m |
| Total | €31.65m |
EIIS funds struggled in 2023, as direct investment carried the more generous relief through the transition; across the market, fund fundraising fell by around 30% between 2022 and 2023. From 2024 onwards, though, they recovered strongly. Our own fund more than doubled, from €3.23 million to €7.82 million, and in 2025 — with the 50% relief driving demand — we raised over €17 million, more than doubling again. In the space of just two years, our annual raise has grown more than fivefold; and because those raises deploy through 2025 and 2026, most of that capital has yet to appear in the national figures.
One To Watch
Revenue has not yet released market-wide data for 2025, so it will be some time before we know whether the broader market has grown in line with what we are seeing at Quintas. Given the momentum on our side, it will be a fascinating figure to watch.
In closingWhat it means for us
None of this changes the fundamental case. EIIS remains, to my mind, the most generous relief an Irish individual can access, and the numbers show a market that has matured into a serious channel for backing Irish enterprise. At Quintas, that is precisely the space we operate in — and we intend to keep doing so.
If you would like to understand how EIIS could work within your own portfolio, we would be glad to talk.
Kevin Canning is CEO of Quintas Capital, a regulated Irish private markets investment firm. This piece reflects his personal views and does not constitute investment or tax advice.