Volvo bid hangs on a thread

GALWAY’S bid to become a Volvo Ocean Race Stopover Port in 2012 was hanging on a thread last night as the backers of the event anxiously awaited a Government decision on funding.

Today (Friday) is ‘D-Day’ in terms of funding and unless the Government commits around€6 million to the project before ‘close of business’, Galway’s hopes of a repeat of last year’s €55 million bonanza will be dashed.

The soundings from Government over the past fortnight were not good with several Government Ministers and TDs indicating their support for the event but citing the perilous state of the country’s finances as the major stumbling block to it ‘coughing up’ the money.

But despite this, John Killeen Chairman of Let’s do it Galway, who brought the event to the city last summer, was still hopeful the Government would see sense and sanction the funding.

“I haven’t given up on it, but I haven’t had a phone call from them yet. I’m just waiting now and hopefully the money will materialise. We’ll know for sure in the morning and hopefully it’s good news,” he said last night.

Galway has a one in three chance of becoming a stopover port for the race in 2012 and is competing against Lorient, France and Lisbon, Portugal to secure the event.

Given the success of the 2009 stopover, Galway’s bid is favoured among the overall Volvo Race organisers but without financial backing from Government the Irish bid will collapse.

Galway West Government backbenchers Noel Grealish (Ind) and Frank Fahey (FF) both issued statements yesterday saying they had put the case to the Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his officials and were continuing to put pressure on Tourism Minister Martin Cullen to fund the event.

Minister Éamon Ó Cuív supports the bid and Galway West opposition TDs, Michael D Higgins (Lab) and Pádraic McCormack (FG) have also been applying pressure.

The former Mayor of Galway, Cllr Padraig Conneely said it would be shocking if the Government allowed this opportunity to slip-by because of a lack of funding.

“The city has proven it is capable of holding a world event and the economic rewards from tourism would repay the Government for its investment,” he said yesterday.

An independent report noted the 2009 event injected €55.8m into the local economy and attracted 650,000 visits to the Race Village at the Docks and to Salthill during the stopover and a total of 1.327 billion people tuned into the television coverage.