MAYOR John Moran was urged this week to get the dialogue going again with billionaire business tycoon JP McManus around the gifting of the โฌ30m Irish Rugby Experience (IRE) to the people of Limerick.
Speaking at Monday’s monthly meeting of Limerick City and County Council, Fianna Fรกil councillor Michael Collins claimed that the most significant failure he has seen since the inauguration of Limerick’s directly-elected Mayor is the closure of the IRE.
He asked Mayor Moran if there has been any movement in relation to the iconic O’Connell Street building, which recorded losses of โฌ1.05m last year.
During a behind-closed-doors meeting with Council members in June this year, Mr McManus said he had no intention of proceeding with any further discussions or process with the local authority regarding the proposed IRE gift. He deemed the Council’s conduct around the failed handover of the major landmark on the city’s main thoroughfare as “mystifying” and “disheartening”.
However, this week the feeling from some local representatives was that it is now time to get discussions up and going once again.
Not all agreed with this notion however.
“In relation to Cllr Collins’ query about the Irish Rugby Experience, he may have seen recently published reports of the accounts for 2024 where it lost โฌ1million last year,” interjected Green Party councillor Seรกn Hartigan.
“This was despite the donation of โฌ700,000 in 2024 and a donation of โฌ12million in 2023, so it had combined losses per annum over 2023 and 2024 of โฌ6million. Limerick City and County Council would have to have made up for it if it had taken on the Rugby Experience, and had to take from housing or road maintenance.
“So to say we dodged a bullet there by not taking on the Rugby Experience is no exaggeration. Well done Mayor for highlighting the issues with us,” Cllr Hartigan said.
Cllr Collins felt Cllr Hartigan’s comments were not accurate, hitting back that “the McManus family were making a very generous gesture towards the running of that building for three years going forward”.
In December of last year, the award-winning six-storey visitor attraction, built through a โฌ30m investment from the JP McManus Foundation, closed its doors only 19 months after opening.
The week before the closure, Mayor John Moran said he was willing to dig into his mayoral fund to meet a โฌ100,000 annual operational cost deficit to keep the “loss-making” IRE open until after the 2027 Ryder Cup – at which point, in 2028, under the gifting terms, its use could be changed by the Council for other civic purposes.
The Mayor told Council members at the time that there wasn’t a “magic fund” of โฌ40m that could be deployed to save this building if they wanted to do other things.
Labour Party councillor Joe Leddin said this week that it was now time for the Office of the Mayor to start discussions with Mr McManus on the IRE and its future use in the city centre.
“Nothing ever gets resolved unless there is dialogue and communications. So I would implore the Mayor, if there aren’t, to start them, because I just think it is unacceptable to have that iconic building in the heart of the city empty,” Cllr Leddin said.
“There’s multiple different uses that building could be potentially put to, but we need to get it reopened. So let’s get the dialogue going and come back to the Council and let us know how you’re getting on with that,” he added.
Council Director General Dr Pat Daly told Council members that after a number of meetings in relation to the IRE, “we all agreed to stand off it and let people time and space to think through”.
“We’re still in that period, so just to let the Council know that.”
Local Democracy Reporting Scheme