RDS plans major developments in Ballsbridge

Major new developments planned at the Royal Dublin Society grounds in Ballsbridge will be carried out by the society, its chief…

Major new developments planned at the Royal Dublin Society grounds in Ballsbridge will be carried out by the society, its chief executive Mr Shane Cleary said at the close of the Horse Show.

An outline of the developments have already been presented to the society's governing body and have been given the go-ahead, he said.

Mr Cleary refused to be drawn on what the developments might be but said the RDS would not be selling any more of the 42 acre site which he described as "the most valuable land in Ireland".

With over €20 million in the bank and the site valued at between €100-€200 million, Mr Cleary said the society was in very good shape financially.

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"I would envisage us carrying out any new development ourselves. There will be no joint ventures. At this stage we cannot sit still, we have to keep moving forward," he said.

Costs at the grounds, he said, had continued to rise and items like insurance had tripled over the past two and a half years.

"Even if we never opened the gates in the RDS we would still be facing a bill of €1 milion a year in insurance costs," he said.

Mr Cleary said the society's main revenue comes from exhibitions and concerts and from lease payments it receives from the Four Season's Hotel, the last major development on the RDS site. Most people, he said, were unaware that the society loses money on every Horse Show - normally about €300,000 annually.

"That is part of our commitment to agriculture and the development of the equestrian sector here from the society which is a not-for-profit organisation," he said.

He said attendances at the Horse Show had been hit by bad weather earlier in the week but by the weekend numbers had improved.

"We normally get 100,000 people in here during the Horse Show, including exhibitors, and we will reach that target this year too," he said.

He expressed pleasure at the commitment from Bord Failte to provide €175,000 for the running of next year's Horse Show which will become part of an international superleague.

"That will be put to the prizemoney to make the RDS show one of the richest shows in the world on a par with Aachen and Calgary in Canada," he said.

There was no question, he said, that the show would be staged anywhere other than at the Ballsbridge grounds which is a unique venue, one of the few such urban centres in the world.

Mr Cleary said he hoped Bord Bainne, the main Irish sponsor of the Kerrygold Horse Show, would continue to be the main sponsor of the event.

Bord Bainne spends an average of €0.5 million a year on sponsoring the event which it uses as its main marketing tool over the year.