While such tax supports can apply to all Irish companies, due to lack of take-up in the sector, they have become more targeted at SMEs - most recently with the announced increase in the R&D tax credit to 30% for such entities.
Employee share ownership plans suit very few private Irish business. For those businesses, the targeted KEEP tax incentive can be a valuable relief. There are other options here too - but sometimes it can be better to just keep the plan simple