Race organisers to squeeze ‘every euro’ from State
The organisers of the Tall Ships Race in Waterford say they’re not happy with the €310,000 they’ve received so far in government grant aid. Running the event is expected to cost in the region of €2 million but it’s expected to generate up to €30 million for Waterford and the South East from July 6 to 9.
On Monday, the organisers confirmed that a proposed €5 park and ride fee had been scrapped because they were now in a position to absorb the cost.
Such transport alone could edge towards €400,000. No extra government funding has been made available up to now to meet such a cost.
Now chief organiser, Nicky Fewer, said an event of such stature and international importance merits a lot more government support. “We’ve been able to announce in the past few days that we can make the park and ride facilities free to the public. This costs significant money.
“We’ve not got any extra central funds to allow us to do this. But we’re not giving up the fight. We are very comfortable with our budget and a lot of money is in. But we’re not giving up on certain areas which we think funding might come in from,” he said.
He said the organisers have made approaches to a variety of government departments, chiefly the Department of Tourism. But such an international event, with a broad appeal, could also qualify for funding from the Department of Transport as well as Marine.
It will put particular pressure on locally-based Transport Minister, Martin Cullen. His department said yesterday that they had not made any money available for the event and that finance had been administered through the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism.
Mr Fewer said: “We’ve been on to the Minister for quite some time and he has been very positive about it. We will continue our lobbying of him, and of other Departments.”
The Waterford public as well as business people in the region have stood square behind the event.
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