Department: No cut in Cork event centre funding

The Government has insisted it has not cut its funding towards the proposed €50m event centre for Cork after it appeared that the Department of Arts was set to cut allocation for the long-delayed development by more than half.

A supplementary estimate to the department’s 2015 budget, revealed yesterday, proposed cutting the €10m originally earmarked for the event centre by €5.149m, with the money to be distributed back to the department and towards the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Culture Ireland, and Ireland’s representation at Expo 15, a world fair in Milan.

The news prompted fears that the €10m government funding that has been ring-fenced for the project was under threat.