Council urged to ring-fence money for Gathering

CLARE County Council have been urged to follow the example of other local authorities by ring-fencing up to €150,000 in this year’s budget to fund events for the Year of the Gathering 2013.
Calls have also been made for the presentation of special visitor certificates to all visitors to Clare during the celebration year.
Councillor Johnny Flynn, at this week’s meeting of Clare County Council, called on the local authority to consider in the 2013 budget the setting aside of the funding.
He commented that the money could be used for the development of up to half a dozen new festivals, one in each electoral area, around certain aspects that are unique to Clare.
“This is in order to ensure a balanced regional spread of tourists, access to Clare residents to events and stimulate local economic activity,” he said.
Galway County Council have already set aside €150,000 of their budget for the celebrations. He urged that resources be committed by Clare County Council to provide world-class events that would promote the economic development of the county.
“I believe if we utilise this money we could get a 10-fold return,” he said. He was seconded by Councillor Gerry Flynn. Councillor Christy Curtin commented that an event that captures the spirit of Clare would be “money well spent.”
He encouraged Councillor Johnny Flynn to ask his party colleagues in Government to request that Clare be allocated specific funding for the Gathering.
Councillor Pat Hayes suggested that instead of creating new festivals, money should be spent on extending the runs of existing successful events in the county.
In response to the motion, Ger Dollard, director of services stated that an overall Gathering Steering Committee has been established for the county comprising some 28 members including elected members from each electoral area, representatives of national organisations and local representation from various sectors. The Clare Gathering initiative is being jointly led by Clare County Council and Shannon Development.
“The work of the Steering Committee to date has focused on formulating an overall plan comprising a range of festivals, events and other activities. A strong focus of the Clare approach will be to internationalise these events and activities and ensure that a significant increase in international visitors is generated for 2013. This is the essence of the overall government-promoted Gathering initiative,” he said.
“No national funding has to date been made available to underpin the overall programme. At a local level, discussions have been held with Clare Local Development Company and an application for a number of elements of the overall Gathering programme may be favourably considered for funding under the Leader programme. The committee is currently compiling an application in conjunction with the Clare Local Development Company on this basis.”
Mr Dollard went on, “The councillors will be aware of the difficulties being experienced by Clare County Council on the budgetary front in 2012 across a range of areas, particularly income collection from rates and commercial water charges. This budgetary situation has been exacerbated by the reduction of €243,000 in the Local Government Fund allocation for 2012.
“While the proposal set out in the motion is a matter for consideration as part of the budgetary process for 2013, it is clear that the financial parameters within which the council must operate are likely to be further constrained in 2013. The matter can be fully considered and debated as part of the discussions on Budget 2013.”
Also at the meeting, Councillor Tony Mulqueen proposed that Clare County Council, in conjunction with the Clare Gathering Committee, present a special visitor certificate to all visitors to Clare during 2013 as a token of their contribution to Clare tourism revenue.
Mr Dollard informed the meeting that the proposal will be brought to the attention of the Clare Gathering Steering Committee for further consideration.
“The manner in which any such scheme would operate, the logistics required to capture all visitors to Clare and the resources that would be required are all factors that need to be considered in detail in assessing the proposal,” stated Mr Dollard.