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One method of rural regeneration involves the financing of businesses in rural areas with outside assistance, which would not have succeeded independently and were encouraged through various government sponsored initiatives to regenerate declining rural economies. Grant aid would be the most utilised source of funding. Many of these enterprises that would have been set up by private individual entrepreneurs would be partly financed by owners equity as a condition of grant aid. Within this context of outside assisted enterprises, other sources of finance, subject to the terms of grant aid such as leasing of plant or hire purchase arrangements for vehicles would also be utilised.

Co-operative Societies have also been a source of finance in rural areas where conventional sources would have been unavailable due to the priority of profit distribution to outside shareholders. Co-operative shareholders however reinvest a larger share of profits back into the business and offer a greater degree of stability than conventional businesses more prone to outside market fluctuations.

LEADER companies were a successful source of funding enterprises in rural areas. They supported; private individuals develop enterprises in rural areas, community led projects, joint INTERREG programmes with partners in EU member states and community projects supported by other statutory bodies and projects initiated by the LEADER companies themselves. The terms of LEADER funded grant aid for private projects were subject to a limit of 7500, 50% for private projects, 80% for community based projects. LEADER funded Innovative Rural Enterprise, crafts enterprise and local service facilities, exploitation of agriculture, forestry and fishery products, enhancement of natural/built/social/cultural environment and environmentally friendly initiatives to a maximum of 65,000 at a rate of 50% Support is also available through LEADER plus for Rural Agri-tourism initiatives, product development of leisure recreational facilities and tourism marketing promotion and training. The latter is grant aided to a maximum of 10,000 at a rate of 40%. Under exceptional circumstances, grant aid of up to 100,000 was available. The LEADER programme was replaced in December 2006 by a similar programme set up and funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. It is a more streamlined version of the LEADER programme in which Three funding companies have been amalgamated into one under the Departments Cohesion process. The new company, yet to be named, will receive a budget of 10M. Treble the previous amount.