PLANNING for Christmas in Limerick isn’t something that should just be discussed in the weeks before the festive season.
The discussion should be a year-round one, councillors decided at this Monday’s Metropolitan District meeting.
With a council workshop planned for early in the new year to discuss plans for Yuletide 2024, Christmas planning is no longer just for Christmas.
Addressing councillors this week, director of economic development, enterprise, and tourism at Limerick City and County Council, Gordon Daly, said that he would very much welcome a workshop in January to have a fuller discussion in relation to planning for Christmas 2024.
He also told council members that he would like their advice and feedback on the potential sponsorship for certain events in the city next Christmas.
“If we spend more, we can do more, that’s without question. I do think we are getting good value for the budget that’s there, but I think there are opportunities there to see who might be out there, different companies, and they may have an interest and we want to explore that,” Mr Daly explained.
Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler pointed out that council members gave feedback to management at City Hall in January 2023 and still nothing has been done.
”There’s been no change and to be talking about the same thing in January gives me no cause for faith or confidence at all in the council or the executive in relation to our Christmas offering,” Cllr Butler said.
“I don’t know what we are expecting to achieve but what I would be expecting is by March that we would be presented with a framework or some clear vision of what Christmas 2024 is going to look like.”
Cllr Sarah Kiely also confessed to having very little faith in having a January review.
“We need to get our act together and try and be a major player in the market for Christmas. We saw what was possible at Halloween for the Lumen Festival and the Samhain Festival and I think we need to start thinking outside the box,” she told the chamber.
“The definition of madness is what you are telling us. You want to do the exact same thing as we did last year but expect a difference outcome. We just can’t accept this.”
Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan took the view that “we are where we are” with Christmas 2023 now, but on a positive note felt the city looked really clean with a festive atmosphere last weekend.
