World ploughing championships under threat with no site in sight

A DECISION on whether Ireland will play host to a world class agricultural event, under threat due to lack of a venue, will be made in January.

The organisers of the 2006 World Ploughing Championships are frantically seeking a new location since it emerged that the original County Carlow site has been earmarked for major roadworks.

The competition is a huge money spinner which draws competitors from 30 countries across the globe.

The original site in County Carlow will be a major building site in 2006 as work begins on a dual carriageway from Dublin to Waterford. Efforts by the National Ploughing Association to delay the route have failed.

Carlow has now lost the event, which would have seen over 300 people stay in a local hotel for 10 days.

The scramble is on to find an alternative venue, or Ireland will lose the multi-million euro competition altogether.

NPA PRO, Anna Maria McHugh said their only hope now seems to be an alternative site.

Over a year’s work had gone into planning the event in Carlow before it emerged that the land, which was to be ploughed for the competition, was the subject of a compulsory purchase order.

The land will be bulldozed to make way for the new road.

“We had hoped to discuss the matter with the Transport Minister Séamus Brennan. We wrote to him seeking a meeting. But that meeting no longer seems to be on the cards.

“We are now looking at alternative venues. We are looking at a number of venues around the country. Of the venues we looked at, Carlow was the most appropriate and suitable.

“We got the event late when the US could not host it. We’re going to pull out all of the stops and are still hopeful we can host the event,” Ms McHugh said.

The World Ploughing Championships is the equivalent of the Olympics of the agricultural sector.

As well as the 30 participating countries, 500 officials and hundreds of thousands of spectators were due for the four-day event.

Ms McHugh said they were still hoping to use the Carlow site.

“Three fields will be affected by the road. If even one of those could remain untouched, particularly the one where ploughing is to take place, we could reorganise things around the site and still hold the event.

“We just want work delayed around one field. But even that doesn’t look likely at this point,” she said.