Limerick's hosting of 2027 Ryder Cup has so far cost the State €3.2m
A Is Host To Of Be Is Manor Ireland At The 2027 Which Limerick In Cup Ryder Adare Held Prospective Due
Ireland has so far spent some €3.2m on its prospective hosting of the 2027 Ryder Cup, which is due to be held at Adare Manor in Limerick.
Officials from the Department of Tourism and Sport told the Public Accounts Committee that staggered payments will be made to the golf tournament’s organisers between now and 2027. The initial payment was made to Ryder Cup LLP last year, they said under questioning from committee vice-chair Catherine Murphy.
A review of Ireland’s last time hosting the event, at the K Club in Kildare in 2006, found the event had been worth €143m to the economy, secretary general of the department Katherine Licken said.
Regarding a mooted bid by Ireland to be co-hosts of the football World Cup in 2030, department official Cian Ó Lionáin said “financial scoping” of such a bid is currently under way, with “a few hundred thousand” euro expected to have been spent by next year.
“Then the Government will have to decide on whether or not to proceed,” he said.
There was protracted questioning at the committee about the department’s oversight of State broadcaster RTÉ in light of its precarious financial position and an ongoing issue regarding freelance contracts assigned to 82 workers who were, in fact, de facto employees of the broadcaster.
Ms Licken told committee chair Brian Stanley that RTÉ was monitored “very closely”, and said while the broadcaster had recorded six straight deficits in recent years, it had recorded a surplus of €7.8m in 2020.
She said that her department shares oversight of RTÉ with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and consultants NewEra, adding the pandemic has demonstrated “how important public service broadcasting really is”.
Regarding the issue of bogus self-employment at RTÉ, an issue which saw the broadcaster make a reparation payment of €1.2m to the Revenue Commissioners for unpaid taxes, Ms Licken said the matter predates her department taking responsibility for RTÉ, but that she was “happy that RTÉ have engaged with very complicated employment law issues” in the course of the Revenue review.
Asked about the robustness or otherwise of RTÉ’s governance in terms of flagging issues such as those regarding incorrectly applied contracts, Ms Licken said she was “satisfied that we have good governance in place with regard to RTÉ”.
In relation to funding and sponsorship for Galway as European Capital of Culture for 2020, the secretary general said the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the project hard just one month after the programme had been lodged, and that it had “become very clear very quickly that the funding wouldn’t materialise”.
Some €22.9m was eventually spent on Galway 2020. The exchequer had initially only been expected to provide 50% of the overall cost, a figure which eventually turned out to be 87%.