Taxpayers pay €6m to fund tourist attractions’ transfer to Clare County Council

Taxpayers will pay €6 million to fund the transfer of Bunratty Castle and other tourist attractions to Clare County Council from Shannon Airport Group, potentially ending a deadlock over the businesses’ future.

The council last year refused to take over Bunratty, Knappogue Castle, Craggaunowen Bronze Age Park and a Cliffs of Moher gift shop from Shannon without meaningful Government support.

Transport Ministers Eamon Ryan and Jack Chambers said on Wednesday that the Government had now agreed to give the council €6 million from the Exchequer to support the transfer of the tourist businesses to the local authority.

The Department of Transport said the €6 million represented almost 100 per cent of the cash that Clare County Council sought for 2023 in order to take on the four attractions. It added that once the transfer goes ahead the Government would pledge further sums to the local authority in 2024 and 2025.

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Clare County Council is taking ownership of the well-known tourist attractions from Shannon to allow the State company focus on its airport and commercial property businesses.

Talks on the move began in 2021 but stalled when an independent report commissioned by the council calculated that the tourist attractions needed investment of €15 million over three years. This prompted the local authority’s refusal to take on the businesses without Government aid. Shannon Airport Group said the statement “surprised” the company.

The council warned that taking them on without Government cash, or a resolution to outstanding terms of a legal agreement, would “have a significant impact on services and commercial businesses in Clare”.

The deadlock left workers and hospitality businesses in the midwest fearing for the future of the tourist businesses.

Bunratty and the other attractions were part of a “heritage” division merged into the Shannon Group when the government created it in 2013 to spin the mid-western airport off into a new entity independent from State company Aer Rianta.