One of the State's major tourist and leisure attractions is threatened with closure because of the enormous increase in its public liability insurance bill.
The cost of public liability and employers' liability insurance for Westport House and Country Park has increased by 61 per cent this year.
Its owner, Lord Jeremy Altamont, said yesterday the attraction may have to close next year unless the Government acted to curb rising insurance costs. His insurance bill jumped by €50,000 this year to €141,000. "We will not be able to go on paying these enormous figures," he said.
"It's not a question that we want to close down. We may have to because if our insurance premium keeps increasing we would be better off to close down until such time as the country and the Government sort out the problem.
"The Government are going to have to take on this problem which is something they should have done eight to 10 years ago," he added.
He called for an analysis of public liability and employers' liability insurance costs as was carried out on motor insurance by the Motor Insurance Advisory Board. "It has to be done rapidly because people will go out of business or will not carry insurance at all which is equally disastrous."
Lord Altamont said people liked to blame September 11th and other disasters for the increases in insurance costs but he believed the problem of higher claims in the Republic than in other EU countries, which fuelled premiums, existed for at least a decade and the Government had failed to address it. He said many tourist attractions were State-owned and the taxpayer footed the bill for their insurance.
"These premiums make it very difficult to operate in tourism and business in general because higher premiums have to be passed on to the public.
"If we pass on more costs to tourists, then tourism here will be costlier than in the EU and this is the greatest problem facing the tourist industry at the moment. It's far more serious than the bad weather," Lord Altamont added.
Westport House and Country Park attracts 60,000 visitors annually and accommodates more than 10,000 holidaymakers every year in its caravan and camping parks. It also employs up to 100 people during the tourist season.