What is an ILP? — Investment Limited Partnership (Ireland)
An ILP is Ireland's regulated fund limited partnership: a general partner manages with unlimited liability, limited partners' liability is capped at their contribution, and the partnership itself is authorised and supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland — in practice almost always as a QIAIF. It was created by the Investment Limited Partnerships Act 1994 and rebuilt for modern private funds by the ILP (Amendment) Act 2020.
The 2020 Act — most provisions commenced 1 February 2021 (Department of Finance) — is what made the vehicle competitive with Cayman, Luxembourg and Channel Islands partnerships: umbrella ILPs with segregated liability between sub-funds, a statutory "safe harbour" list of actions a limited partner can take without losing limited liability (advisory committees, voting on changes), simplified amendment and migration mechanics, and alignment with AIFMD. Before it, the 1994 Act had produced only a handful of ILPs; the overhaul was aimed squarely at private equity, private credit and real-assets sponsors wanting a common-law LP inside the EU.
Because the ILP is authorised as a QIAIF, the full stack applies — authorised AIFM, Irish depositary, administrator, auditor, €100,000 qualifying-investor minimum — and the reward is the AIFMD passport, which no Cayman, Jersey or Guernsey LP can offer.
The practical gotcha: keep the layers straight in negotiation — the LPA governs the partnership, but the AIF Rulebook governs the product, and where they collide (disclosure, redemptions in an open-ended ILP, depositary duties) the Rulebook wins. Draft the LPA to the Rulebook, not against it.
Where this appears on FundRegTracker
- Where to domicile a private fund — ILP vs RAIF-SCSp vs JPF vs Guernsey PIF
- Loan-originating funds: Ireland vs Luxembourg