Louth entrepreneur Oran Finegan highlights opportunities in Back for Business programme

Returned emigrants in Louth now have the chance to turn their business ideas into reality through the government-backed Back for Business programme. The initiative, designed to support Irish nationals who have lived abroad and are returning home, has already helped local entrepreneurs like Carlingford native Oran Finegan establish and grow successful businesses, highlighting the benefits of the scheme for the county’s budding business community.

The programme, which is funded by the Irish Abroad Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was created to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants recently returned to Ireland or are still living abroad but thinking of returning to Ireland. 

Back for Business is now seeking offers of interest from eligible candidates hoping to return or who have already returned to Louth.

To qualify, applicants must be returned Irish emigrants who lived abroad for at least a year and have returned to Ireland in the last three years, or are currently living abroad with plans to return to Ireland in the near future. 

This is the ninth year of the programme and those eligible have until Friday, January 16^th, to apply through www.backforbusiness.com. The programme will begin with a Launch Forum and round table event on February 13th, 2026, and will conclude in June. Up to 50 places are available.

Back for Business has a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs who are returned emigrants to significant grow sales and increase employment. Since launching in 2017, the initiative has helped early-stage entrepreneurs address common challenges faced by emigrants who have been living away from Ireland. 

Some 100% of those who completed last year’s programme, Back for Business 8, reported they would recommend the programme to others and would like to stay in contact with the Back for Business community. 

Participants on Back for Business 9 will meet once a month on a peer-supported round table, facilitated by voluntary Lead Entrepreneurs, who have experience of successfully starting and growing a business. Many of them have also lived abroad before returning to Ireland to start their business. 

This year’s Lead Entrepreneurs are: Gillian O’Dowd, Director at Azon; Paul Duggan of The Gardiner Group; Seamus Reilly, co-founder and formerly of Critical Healthcare; Sinéad Doherty, founder and CEO of Fenero; and Thomas Ennis, founder of the Thomas Ennis Group.

Oran Finegan had spent 25 years working as a leading forensic specialist with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when the opportunity arose to take the methods he had learned in conflict and post-conflict zones around the world and apply them back home in Ireland. A native of Carlingford, Co. Louth, Oran set up his company, Forensic Action International, shortly after his return to Ireland in October 2023. Oran believes the Back for Business programme gave him a “step up” in his bid to develop the business.

“I have a huge amount to learn and having the structure that the programme provided, as well as access to likeminded entrepreneurs, was fantastic for helping me bridge that knowledge gap,” he says.

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Before leaving Ireland Jennifer Provan was working in hospitality after studying Hospitality Management, and she set up her own catering company and two cafés while living in Glasgow. Ultimately, however, she had always wanted to return to Ireland and, after 21 years in Glasgow, the couple took the opportunity to do so when their son went away to college. When she returned home, she set up Kitchenetta Catering, which caters for all events big or small using local, sustainable, seasonal Irish ingredients. 

Jennifer says Back for Business was an amazing experience: “It was very collaborative and very supportive. We gleaned a lot of knowledge from each other and our Lead Entrepreneur, a lot of which we’ve gone on to use,” she says. “I would highly recommend it. I really enjoyed every minute of it, and I know that all of my group did as well, and we’re all very much in touch since and still supporting each other. It’s been seriously advantageous.”