*The Cliffs of Moher.
REVENUE generated by the Cliffs of Moher is invested back into Co Clare, the Chief Executive of Clare County Council has insisted.
Accounts for 2023 show revenues at the Cliffs of Moher were €13.8m, an increase of €3m on the €10.8m recorded in 2022.
According to Chief Executive of Clare County Council, the Cliffs are not the biggest earner in the Council’s coffers. “It is not the main revenue source, we’ve a revenue budget of over €200m, there are many other revenue sources from rates, local property tax, charges for services and government grants. In reality, all the money raised in the Cliffs of Moher is invested back into Co Clare through either local authority services or supporting other tourism sites, it is all invested back into Co Clare”.
Within North Clare there is frustration that insufficient funds from the Cliffs are pumped back into local infrastructure such as the roads in surrounding communities of Liscannor, Doolin, Lahinch, Lisdoonvarna, Kilfenora and further afield.
Daly said the money is divered back to the Council but was unable to decipher the exact division at the time of his interview. “I don’t have the exact figures on that as to the division of that spending. The money is invested across wider local authority services but there is also reinvestment into the site itself and also other visitor attractions”.
Efforts continue to spread tourists countywide when they visit the world renown Cliffs of Moher. “That has been a challenge for fifteen to twenty years since the initial visitor experience was opened in 2005, at that point our numbers started to go north of one million. Every effort is being made in relation to that work with Fáilte Ireland, we have introduced a bus service during the summer to try disperse that, our marketing does try and disperse them to other sites under the ownership of the Council and other tourism visitor sites in Co Clare, every effort is made to do that but it is an incredibly popular iconic must-see site when people visit Ireland never mind the West of Ireland or Clare. We’re continuously trying to strike that balance”.
More resources could be assigned to the likes of Bunratty Castle and Folk Park and the Inis Cealtra Visitor Experience to try strike that balance, he acknowledged. “We have seen that the Council has broadened its tourism focus by taking the very brave and correct decision to take on the Shannon Heritage sites and off its own bat to take on the Inis Cealtra project, there is a real attempt to get balanced development in Co Clare whether it is population, services, transportation or tourism that we want a balanced county, balanced development and there is huge tourism opportunities in East Clare, South Clare and West Clare, we want those areas to thrive as well”.
