WATCH: Limerick TD secures 'funding commitment' to help restore King John's Castle visitor numbers
A LIMERICK TD has secured a “sincere commitment” from government that funding will be provided to enable the smooth transfer of King John’s Castle to Limerick City and County Council.
The topic was raised in the Dáil chambers today by Deputy Kieran O’ Donnell, who asked if a funding gap for the first three years after the agreed transfer takes place, will be addressed.
The transfer of ownership from Shannon Group will come into effect from Monday, April 4, 2022, whereby a wholly-owned subsidiary of LCCC, Discover Limerick DAC, will take over.
The Deputy stressed that King John’s Castle is “synonymous” with Limerick city, and that in 2019, 111,000 people passed through the site. This dropped to 24,000 in 2021.
“We want to put King John’s Castle into a position that it can return to those number,” Deputy O’ Donnell stated.
He added that LCCC are already looking forward to taking over the tourist attraction, which will be open on a seven day a week basis and confirmed that all 14 staff members will keep their jobs.
Following the transfer, costly administrative duties like IT systems, marketing, human resources, sales and legal teams will now be the responsibility of LCCC, the Deputy outlined.
“These will require major setup costs,” he said.
Addressing his query, Hildegarde Naughton, Minister of State with Responsibility for Transport said that her department will work to ensure the transfer will proceed as planned.
She added that her intention is to ensure that the site will be “placed in a positive position to benefit from increased visitors.”
The Minister of State also outlined that meetings are ongoing between departments to bridge the funding gap raised by Deputy O’ Donnell.
“The priority here is that King John’s Castle has the required funding to be able to be viable into the future and you have my sincere commitment on that,” she concluded.