Ireland’s Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), the residence by investment route that the government shut to new applicants in February 2023, has approved a fresh round of multi-million-euro grants for sports clubs and community projects. The Department of Justice signed off on the approvals in late May, more than three years after the program stopped accepting investors.
Shelbourne FC took the largest single award, €9.2 million for a Tolka Park Community Hub that will sit alongside the Dublin club’s redeveloped ground. Independent TD Barry Heneghan welcomed the funding for its disability inclusion and community access elements.
Cork drew the largest regional share. Almost €15 million went to three projects: €8 million for new Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) grounds in Kinsale, €2.8 million for an indoor training center at Bandon Athletics, and €4 million for a community hall in Timoleague.
In County Mayo, the village of Islandeady received €3.6 million for a community hub and biodiversity park. Minister of State Alan Dillon announced that approval.
The money flows through the program’s endowment option. That route required a philanthropic donation of at least €500,000, or €400,000 a head where five or more investors backed the same project, directed at public-benefit work in sport, the arts, health, culture, or education. In return, the donor and his nominated family members qualified for Irish residence.
Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has stressed that the Department plays no part in administering the donations and holds none of the money itself. Each arrangement, he said in the Dáil, is a private matter between the investor and the project. The department approves the project, and the cash then passes straight from donor to recipient.
Launched in 2012 to pull foreign capital into a crisis-hit economy, the IIP closed in February 2023 with a single day’s notice. By then it had approved almost €1.252 billion in investment, most of it from Chinese nationals.
The grants now reaching clubs and halls are the tail of that pipeline. Roughly 3,127 applications worth around €2.12 billion outlived the closure, and the Department has worked through them since, clearing a record number in 2024.
