Insurance costs threaten future of Carrigaline St Patrick’s Day Festival

INSURANCE for festivals is becoming so costly threatening the future of the St Patrick’s Day Festival in Carrigaline, according to a local councillor.

Fine Gael Cllr Michael Murtagh told Carrigaline Municipal District that his area has run into problems with insurance for festivals. 

“The allocations are fantastic, that we are getting allocations for each town and village,” he said.

However, a community association in his area that had a facility to run certain festivals, can no longer get insurance for festivals. 

“Now the insurance companies have stopped that this year for the first time. We have to crowd fund for insurance,” said Mr Murtagh, who requested the issue go to a full council meeting.

“Insurance companies are putting the squeeze on, and making it harder to run festivals in towns, which we all know have massive knock-on effects, not only for residents but for businesses as well,” he said.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Audrey Buckley is involved in the St Patrick’s Day Festival in Crosshaven. The organising association used to have four festivals included in their insurance, but this year there is a quote of €1,000 per festival.

“We are now scrambling,” she said. 

“We want to have the St Patrick’s Day Parade on March 18, but now we’re scrambling to get it out there and try and fundraise this €1,000 to have the festival. We do appreciate that we get funding from Cork County Council for the festival. But unfortunately, it doesn’t include the insurance,” said Ms Buckley, who also requested that the issue be raised at county Ccouncil level.

“I don’t know what we can do to try and get insurance for festivals. We’ll see less festivals if people have to raise that much money to have one,” she added.

The St Patrick’s Day Festival has not taken place since 2019 in the Carrigaline area, given previous public health advice and restrictions. It is expected that festivals will take place in 2023, according to a Carrigaline Municipal District Report. 

“The Carrigaline MD Elected Members will make provision for this when they are allocating funding from the Town Development Fund,” it states.

The proposed allocations for 2023’s St Patrick’s Day Festivals are, €5,500 for Carrigaline, and €1,500 each for Crosshaven and Passage West. ‘General festival’ provisions of €2,500 are also allocated for Carrigaline, with €2,000 each for Passage West and Crosshaven.