Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, from July to December 2026, is a good moment to take stock of the state of the social enterprise sector in our country. Seven years ago, Ireland had no national social enterprise policy and no reliable data on the sector.
Today we have a second national policy co-designed with the sector, a public procurement strategy that names social enterprise, a national evidence base, and a growing set of practical tools. We are not finished. But the Irish journey offers lessons, and some warnings, for a European social economy agenda at a turning point as talks on the next EU budget begin.
Where we started
Ireland’s first National Social Enterprise Policy (2019–2022) gave the sector what it had long lacked: an official definition aligned with EU and OECD approaches, and a whole-of-government commitment to growth. It also committed to officially collect data on the sector.
That commitment produced the 2023 baseline data collection exercise, delivered for Government by Amárach Research, SERI and the Irish Local Development Network. It identified 4,335 social enterprises, about 8.5 per 10,000 people. Together they employ around 84,000 people (3.7% of the workforce), mobilise almost 75,000 volunteers and board members, and generate €2.34 billion in income, 0.63% of GDP.
The data also showed the composition of the sector. Three in four social enterprises serve a local market; density is highest in rural counties such as Leitrim and Donegal, and almost half have traded for over 20 years. Yet one in six was under five years old, mostly in work integration and environmental services. Most are small: median income was €180,000, and around €80,000 in rural areas. Trading and grants each made up roughly a third of income, and 60% of employers relied on labour activation schemes.
Building the ecosystem: Trading for Impact and beyond
Trading for Impact, Ireland’s National Social Enterprise Policy 2024–2027, is the centrepiece of the current ecosystem. How it was made matters as much as what it says. The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht ran a genuinely consultative process, and 32 of the policy’s 57 actions came from proposals put forward by SERI members in a pre-policy consultation.
The new National Public Procurement Strategy reinforces this with a strong emphasis on supporting social enterprises. For a sector whose customers are often public bodies, it signals a strategic shift from social enterprises as a grant recipient to suppliers.
Delivery has followed, and recent wins include:
- Innovative shared service models piloted across the sector, helping smaller organisations access capacity they could not resource alone.
- New funding, including the Sustaining Social Enterprise Fund.
- An enhanced Community Services Programme (CSP), the backbone of community-based social enterprise.
- More accessible Local Enterprise Office supports, bringing social enterprises into mainstream enterprise policy.
- A verification programme that gives buyers, funders and the public confidence in who is a social enterprise.
SERI has added its own infrastructure: a National Social Enterprise Hub, and Sphere, an AI-powered social procurement platform that makes it easier for public and private buyers to find and do business with social enterprises. Verification and Sphere together help turn procurement policy into real contracts.
The challenges that remain
Progress has not removed fragility. The most pressing challenge is financial instability: 56% of social enterprises report insufficient reserves to handle unexpected challenges over the next 12 months.
Many work where markets have failed, in places or services with deficient demand, where a purely commercial model will never break even. That is why they exist, and why public support for them is an investment rather than a subsidy.
Rising costs compound the problem. Insurance, utilities, wages, employer costs and the cost of goods have all climbed. A community café or childcare service cannot simply pass these on without undermining its mission.
The baseline also flagged structural issues: reliance on activation schemes for staffing, a rural income gap, and no routine financial data on the sector. The second baseline exercise, which will be published in November, will indicate whether the policy is working.
Working in partnership with Government
SERI’s relationship with Government is positive and practical. We sit on every key stakeholder structure for the sector: the SME Advisory Group, the Trading for Impact Stakeholder Engagement Group, the Social Procurement Working Group and the Social Finance Working Group. This places social enterprise inside mainstream enterprise policy. It means our members’ evidence reaches decision-makers quickly, and policy is tested against practice before it is finalised.
What Ireland can offer Europe
Ireland’s social enterprise policy is still young. Even so, several parts of our experience are relevant as Member States build national strategies under the 2023 Council Recommendation on social economy framework conditions.
- Co-created policy. Trading for Impact shows that when the sector shapes the actions, policy is more relevant and ownership is shared.
- Co-produced evidence. Our baseline was designed with the sector, aligned with EU and OECD definitions, and benchmarked against Scotland’s census. It is a repeatable model for countries without a social enterprise register.
- Community and rural roots. With the highest density of social enterprises in rural counties, Ireland shows how social enterprise sustains services where markets fail. This speaks directly to Europe’s cohesion and rural agendas.
- From policy to market. Linking a national procurement strategy with verification and a digital marketplace like Sphere is a practical route to socially responsible public procurement.
- Mainstreaming. Opening Local Enterprise Office and SME supports to social enterprises treats them as enterprises, not only as community projects.
The Presidency and the years ahead
On behalf of the Government of Ireland, SERI is organising the Annual Social Enterprise Conference 2026, an Associated Event of Ireland’s EU Presidency. It will bring together EU and Irish leaders from across the social enterprise ecosystem.
A central theme will be the next Multiannual Financial Framework. As the post-2027 EU budget takes shape, support for social enterprise risks becoming less visible inside broader funding envelopes. Effective, coordinated advocacy at EU level is needed to keep that support explicitly named and within reach of social enterprises delivering on the ground.
SERI‘s priorities for the coming years are:
- Financial resilience: multi-annual funding, support to build reserves, and patient social finance.
- Market access: putting the National Public Procurement Strategy into practice through verification, Sphere and buyer engagement.
- Cost pressures: practical action on insurance and operating costs.
- Evidence: a second national baseline to track progress.
- The next policy: building on Trading for Impact beyond 2027, again co-created with the sector.
- A European voice: making sure Irish evidence and experience inform the MFF and the wider social economy agenda.
Ireland’s Presidency ends in December, but the conversations it starts should not. We invite partners across Europe to join us at the conference, share what is working in your countries, and help make the case that social enterprise is part of Europe’s economic future, not a footnote to it.