Provisional figures show near €270k spent on Limerick homecoming and World Cup watch party

Limerick City and County Council spent nearly €270,000 to organise the All-Ireland homecoming and a watch party for the World Cup final while over €230,000 was spent on the mayor’s summer programme. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie

Limerick City and County Council spent nearly €270,000 to organise the All-Ireland homecoming and a watch party for the World Cup final while over €230,000 was spent on the mayor’s summer programme.

This is according to Limerick mayor John Moran, who shared provisional spending figures from the local authority on his blog.

Mr Moran said the council gave “very significant support” to recent events, including the Limerick hurlers’ homecoming and a watch party of the World Cup final.

He said €269,523 was spent on both for the one-day celebration, including €5,073.75 from the mayoral fund to pay for garda deployment for the World Cup final watch party.

The mayor said €439,664 was spent for the St Patrick’s Day Festival Weekend, which ran for up to three days.

Meanwhile, €577,139 was spent to organise RiverFest during the May bank holiday weekend.

Mr Moran shared the details on his own blog, as he disclosed €233,908.20 was spent on his Summer in the City programme during the month of August.

He said this was a “significant amount of public money”, and said it was “important to release provisional figures now, instead of withholding numbers”.

He added the cost of the summer activation programme “must also be taken in the context of spending on the following much shorter recent events” which received council funding. He then went on to list the events mentioned above.

As part of the Summer in the City programme, Mr Moran said he had been advised that the installation of the urban beach came “within the budget of €12,500”, with an additional €6,000 spent in advance on deep cleaning the area.

Mr Moran said an additional €2,000 was then used to replace furniture and other items stolen one night in August.

The August Activation programme cost an estimated €233,908.20 – a budget uplift of €93,908 on the original €140,000 allocation from his mayoral fund.

“The uplift is not caused by unexpected cost overruns.

“I made the conscious decision to provide that additional funding when it became clear in late July that there was scope for and indeed a need especially responding to additional community interest for its scale and variety to be expanded and to address weaknesses in the original budget that threatened the quality and delivery of the programme,” Mr Moran said.

He said he is considering a similar move to accelerate improvements for the Christmas activities.

He also shared provisional figures for the cost of a long table dinner at The Crescent, which drew criticism as some questioned its exclusivity and access.

“I know some have a particular political interest in the costs of the long-table event as well as the beach so I will explain my understanding of the position there,” Mr Moran said.

He said the “final direct expenditure” for the 200-something people who attended came to “approximately” €3,000.

This includes furniture rentals and €600 spent on flyers to “ensure the local neighbourhood knew about it and could attend”.