A BID by two local bodies could secure a €26 million investment in a National Diaspora Centre for Limerick.
Fáilte Ireland will be seeking submissions of interest in the coming weeks to find partners in the venture, which would generate a massive cash spinoff for wherever it is located.
The Limerick Post has learned that the Shannon Airport Board along with the Limerick local authorities are engaging consultants to prepare a submission and are determined to have the centre located in Limerick.
Local Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell said he has made Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar aware that Limerick is putting itself forward as having major potential for being the right site. “I have made him aware of the huge level of interest there is in this project in Limerick,” he told the Limerick Post.
“This is a major opportunity for Limerick. The local authorities and the Shannon Airport Authority are making a joint bid to bring the National Diaspora Centre to Limerick City. I believe that the coming together of a major city and a major International airport can make for a formidable bid.
“It’s estimated that any investment in tourism will repay itself five times over. Limerick has unique advantages, being situated so close to an international airport. This would be enormous in terms of jobs and economic spin-off”, he explained.
Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar said that while Ireland had a very large overseas diaspora compared to the population of the country, we do not have a National Diaspora Centre.
“A Fáilte Ireland study has concluded that a centre could be viable and self-financing on an operational basis, and would be an opportunity to add to Ireland’s tourism offering. The State’s finances remain extremely constrained. We are not in a position to develop the centre from our own resources. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make it happen”.
A Fáilte Ireland spokeswoman said: “For a number of years now, there has been growing recognition of the importance of the Irish diaspora in the cultural, political and economic development of Ireland. This recognition has come at a period in which cultural tourism is growing rapidly worldwide”.
The centre would reach out to first and second and further generations of Irish people living abroad to encourage them to visit, trace their ancestry and enjoy a wide variety of tourism attractions.
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via Limerick gets in line for €26 million diaspora centre (396 with quote box) | Limerick Post Newswrite.
