Gloomy outlook for Lahinch Seaworld without extra funding

LAHINCH Seaworld and Leisure Centre could close within a year without an injection of funds or a major increase in business.

According to Ian Taylor, business development manager at the North Clare facility, the centre’s future is in jeopardy and badly needs the support of the community and Clare County Council if it is to survive. Things have been so bad at times that staff have put money in to try to keep the waterside attraction afloat.
Lahinch Seaworld opened in 1996 and has traded at a loss for all but two of the past 14 years, a position Mr Taylor acknowledges is unsustainable. The amenity’s first five years were its busiest but a combination of heavy outlays and fewer visitors has caused a serious downturn for the last five years.
“When you are running a pool, the overheads are so big, you are looking at €250,000 just to run a pool every year. That includes say €160,000 on oil and then another €70,000 to €80,000 on electricity for air-conditioning systems. They are two big overheads but you have to factor in that you are a small town of maybe 700 people in the West of Ireland.
“The nature of when the building was put up means there was no energy efficiency looked at, very little heat retention and in terms of insulation, it is very, very poor, which means it leaks out a lot of heat,” he explained.
Improving the premises and facilities in order to lower costs and attract more customers is complicated by a lack of cash flow.
“We have over €100,000 of bills that need to be paid and we don’t have the money to pay it. The problem is now that everyone is looking for payment on delivery and say if we try to open our shop now then we don’t have any money to stock it so we can’t open it and make money. We had serious leak damage over the winter, which we still haven’t fixed because we didn’t have money to pay for it,” Mr Taylor continued.
Sourcing funding has proven extremely difficult, particularly as the country faces another year of economic uncertainty. Lahinch Seaworld and Leisure Centre is a public limited company but it does receive funding from Clare County Council and while he’d like more financial support from the local authority, Mr Taylor understands that it too finds itself precariously trying to balance the books.
“Clare County Council gives a contribution to the facility every year but in my opinion, it is not enough. People have put money in from the community; they just want to have it there for their kids and have a community-based facility. Even staff have had to put money in. In terms of the pool, boilers go out and we have had to scrape some cash together to get pumps and that is how tight it is,” Mr Taylor commented.
In order to turn the fortunes of the centre around, prices were dropped by 25% this year, a new patio area added to facilitate up to 250 people and a new restaurant, Randaddy’s, is opening. Mr Taylor also hopes to develop a new shower area for surfers, portable climbing wall and new multi-purpose area to facilitate badminton, table tennis, cinema, theatre, community events, comedy or music acts, teenage discos and a state-of-the-art communication centre.
“I think a lot of people are coming to Lahinch. It is the biggest surf destination in the country and even now, every weekend the carpark here is packed. We will have an official launch but details of that have yet to be confirmed,” Mr Taylor concluded.
To find out more about Lahinch Seaworld, log on to lahinchseaworld.com or call 065 7081900.