Concert hall chief's plea for new €100m venue

Dublin’s National Concert Hall chairman today has called for Government aid for a new €100m venue to attract major events to the capital.

The 2,000-seater development will be located on the site of UCD’s medical and engineering departments, which will move to the university’s Belfield campus.

National Concert Hall chairman Dr Dermot Egan said the new project could generate over €50m for the local economy and create a state-of-the-art concert venue to replace the current 900-seat facility.

He said: “When compared with Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, London and Birmingham, we are the smallest, the oldest and the most restricted, even though we date from 1981.

“We are lagging in the development of a concert hall of 1,800 plus seats, compared to most European cities.”

Making the call for extra funding for the NCH redevelopment, Dr Egan said: “We hope this opportunity will be grasped by the Government.

“The Board of the National Concert Hall is convinced there is a strong cultural and business case to have a three-hall facility at Earlsfort Terrace,”

“The venue would provide Ireland with the opportunity to better attract and accommodate major domestic and international performances and events.

“The opportunity presents itself now as never before to embark on a work of major cultural renewal and to develop a state-of-the-art concert performance centre to take its place alongside the best that Europe has to offer.

“Otherwise, there is a real risk that Ireland’s National Concert Hall will be left behind in the perception of audiences at home and performers and promoters abroad.”

When the development is completed, the NCH says it would also upgrade the existing hall, which holds 900 seats. It would build a third ’flexible’ hall for 400 people.

The NCH, which received a grant of 1.6m euro from the Government last year, today reported turnover levels of almost 5m euro last year.

During the year, it staged 396 events and increased its attendance figures to over 280,000.

Business to date this year has been very buoyant, with strong returns for the first quarter and average attendance levels up from 74% in 2004 to 83% for the first four months of 2005.

The NCH receives a grant in aid of 1.6m euro from the Exchequer and with its attendances of more than 280,000, it claims it requires the lowest level of grant per attendee of the major national cultural institutions.

Redevelopment would allow the doubling of events and seat numbers, Mr Egan said.