Additional Government funding to be sought for Cork events centre

A MEMO to Government seeking additional state funding for Cork City’s long-awaited events centre is expected to be submitted soon.

Additional funding is needed for the centre, which is to be built on the site of the former Beamish & Crawford brewery on South Main St, following the completion of detailed design.

“Government approved a €57m grant two years ago, which was before detailed design was complete and, as part of that, Government committed that it would look at any building-inflation impact between that date and when detailed design was complete, so that’s where we’re at,” Cork City Council’s chief executive, Ann Doherty, said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

“What’s happening, at the moment, the detailed design is complete, it’s fully costed, it’s all been out to tender through the developers, and there is an inflationary ask back to me, which I now have sent to our parent department, who would be responsible for the production of the memo to Government that would then be asked to approve that sum of money.

“I can’t share the sum of money, because, obviously, it’s subject to government decision and it wouldn’t be fair, but I think everybody is behind this project. I think everybody knows it’s really important for the city,” Ms Doherty said.

Ms Doherty said she believes that despite the hurdles over the years, the events centre is a “viable project that will do enormous things for the city”.

She also said she believes that there is “good support” for the project at government level.

Ms Doherty said that Cork City Council has completed all of the paperwork for the request for further state funding.

“We’ve done all the documentation and all the relevant cases, etc, to give our colleagues in the civil service and they’re going through their process now, so it’s their duty through the minister for housing... to take the memo to government and our understanding is that they’re in the final throws of that,” Ms Doherty said.

It was revealed at a meeting of Cork City Council in December that the project would require an additional funding allocation.

Responding to a query from Independent councillor Mick Finn, Ms Doherty said that a recommendation on an additional amount of State aid would be made “in due course”.

The consortium that won the tender for the centre, BAM and Live Nation, was initially expected to benefit from a €20m state aid package, which was later increased to €50m and then to €57m.