BILLIONAIRE horse racing mogul JP McManus told local councillors at a private briefing last week that it remains unclear to him why Limerick City and County Council would not accept his gift of the €30million Irish Rugby Experience (IRE) on behalf of the people of Limerick.
Speaking at the closed-doors meeting at County Hall in Dooradoyle last Thursday, Mr McManus was of the opinion that all the information was available to the Council to ensure a smooth transition of his €30m gift, if there had been meaningful engagement with the IRE.
The landmark O’Connell Street tourist attraction, he told the gathered Council members, was intended as a gift to the people of Limerick, along with €1.2million to “assist with the running costs in the coming years”.
“One of the proudest days of my life was 11th May, 2001, when Limerick City Council recognised me as a Freeman of Limerick,” an emotional McManus told Council members.
“My love of Limerick has always driven me to see what could be done to help the city and county thrive, and to foster the spirit of volunteerism in Limerick people.
“Limerick is a city which we all dearly love and which has made the greatest strides over the last 30 plus years, but sadly, the city centre appears not to have kept pace. In order to help with this, and boost the city centre, Paul O’Connell and I discussed a regenerative idea to try to increase footfall into the heart of our city.”
Mr McManus told the private meeting that “many options were explored, and, having considered many ideas, it seemed fitting to us that a rugby experience would be consistent with the city’s great tradition and affiliation with the sport and so the International Rugby Experience concept was formulated”.
“Contrary to the advice of State agencies, we chose not to charge the full market admission price so as to allow the experience to be as affordable as possible. This dove-tailed with our twin objective of increasing footfall to the city centre to tilting the business model more towards higher attendances rather than high admission fees.
“From when we opened, we attracted 62,050 visitors to the Experience. We also attracted separately, 7010 visitors to the Santa Experience, which was the only Santa offering for families in the city centre last year.”
McManus pointed out to the Council that his brainchild project commenced in 2016, at a time when various different Fáilte Ireland reports highlighted a lack of tourist attractions, especially audio-visual attractions, that would complement the heritage assets in Limerick.
“More generally, we recognised a lack of civic spaces and a growing dereliction in Limerick city centre, and we wanted to establish a project of scale to help kick-start the urban, social, and cultural regeneration of Limerick.”
Mr McManus went on to say that meaningful and positive discussions were held with the local authority leading to the signing of a Heads of Terms agreement in March 2024.
Throughout all of the IRE’s interactions with the Council regarding the proposed gift, McManus insisted his team was fully transparent and provided full disclosure of documents and information.
After councillors met to discuss the proposed gift last October, McManus said he highlighted a very “fundamental concern and disappointment” when it was allegedly discovered that a consultant’s report was presented to elected Council members as a joint report without IRE consultation.
“In our view, this contributed heavily to the misinterpretation of the proposal to the councillors and the Heads of Terms agreement was not honoured by Limerick City and County Council,” he told councillors at last Thursday’s private meeting.
“The imbalanced orientation of how this gesture was presented to the councillors at the meeting in October 2024 made it nigh-on impossible for the councillors to accept the donation,” he claimed.
McManus also told last Thursday’s private meeting that a number of questions still remain unanswered, including the reason officials in the Council made amendments to a report that had allegedly been jointly agreed.
“Having regard to the many projects and initiatives we have been involved in, the outcome to date in relation to the International Rugby Experience proposal has been mystifying and indeed disheartening,” McManus told the meeting.
He concluded his speech by stating: “We have no intention of proceeding with any further discussions of process with Limerick City and County Council in regard to this proposed gift.”
However, several sources have told the Limerick Post that the four-hour meeting was very productive and positive, suggesting that the door was left open between the IRE and the local authority for further talks on the future of the landmark building.
Limerick City and County Council was asked for comment.
