This article is from page 6 of the 2008-03-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
in response to a Freedom of Information request show that there was never a prospect of the mid-west securing the €53 million sought since July 2006.
In January, the Ministers for Trans- port and Tourism announced details of an economic plan in advance of the ending of the stop-over the next month. The tourism minister, Sea- mus Brennan, stated that the monies involved would amount to €15 to €20 million over the next number of years.
A senior Department of Tourism official described the €53 million demand, made up of €44 million in Government aid over several years plus a once-off payment of €9 mil- lion, as “off the wall’.
“€44m over five years is off the wall. How much do we spend direct- ly or indirectly on marketing in Ire- land? Maybe that over four years?” he said.
He added that the Mid West Re- gional Authority demand for <€44 million “was always totally unrealis- tic and has done much to undermine the credibility of its broader case. If there are real marketing needs, these are likely to be far more modest. “The demands need to be tempered by realism and, of course, the strong possibility that major concessions to Shannon could give rise to copy- cat demands from other parts of the country. Throwing marketing money at Shannon is not the solution to the challenges facing it.” The memo, dating from early last year, goes on: “Also, the ongoing uncertainty about ‘open skies’ does mean that we have to avoid a situ- ation where we would embark on ‘open skies’ related initiatives only for them to go off at half cock due to delays in negotiations. “We understand that the Minister for Transport has a draft economic and tourism plan for Shannon, but the contents of that may not be earth Jerlaroowentee “If there are extra funds, this might allow for the implementation of the north American strategy in full, though in a convoluted way. “Our view is that marketing funds Should be for the wider catchment, be put through the super regions mecha- nism and be in accord with the north American strategy.” In March, an internal departmental memo stated that the proposed annu- al spend by the Mid-West Regional Authority “of €8.8m would actually exceed the entire marketing of Tour- ism Ireland in the US market which is, of course, to promote the entire island of Ireland”.