Fáilte Ireland has denied that Cork County Council spent €670,000 on a tourist information sign in Bantry. The purported spend had been likened to the €336,000 outlay on the Leinster House bicycle shed.
However, the tourism body issued a statement on Tuesday evening saying the €500,000 it had allocated to the council as part of its €15.5 million Destination Towns Programme was for a number of works in the town and not just the construction of the portal information sign on Wolfe Tone Square.
Fáilte Ireland said its allocation was to cover the removal of 20 existing signs from various locations around the town and the erection of 23 new storyboards comprising one portal sign, six totem signs, eight lectern structures and eight directional fingerpost signs.
“All of the storyboards tell the fascinating history of Bantry people and historic events, with translations in both English and Irish,” it said.
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The funding was also for the decluttering and rearrangement of street furniture and the improvement of lighting and paving, Fáilte Ireland added.
It said the aim of the project was to improve the visitor experience in the town by better signposting the routes between attractions such as Bantry House and Gardens and Wolfe Tone Square, where a new visitor interpretation hub has been developed
The council said it had provided funding of €170,000 to complement the Fáilte Ireland allocation and that Bantry was selected as the county’s destination town due to its strategic importance as a tourist location.
The council said it was decided following local consultation, and in line with national requirements, that the money would be spent on “improving tourism signage and linking to a heritage trail that was specially targeted to cruise and ferry visitors”.
Independent Ireland Cllr Danny Collins said council staff had told him the €670,000 “was for the overall scheme, not just the portal structure at the harbour end of Wolfe Tone Square”.
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The councillor said he had tabled a motion for next week’s Bantry Municipal District meeting where he is seeking a full breakdown of the costs of the sign and other works around the town.
He said people were very angry after local media reports suggested the portal structure had cost that much, and that he had been “getting it in the neck from people, and I could well understand their anger if the sign had indeed cost that amount”.
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