Book of Kells to get €2.7m grant boost

IRELAND’s MOST famous manuscript and one of the State’s top-five visitor attractions will receive €2.7 million in grant aid to develop and update its tourism potential.

The Book of Kells at Trinity College is one of four projects to benefit from the funding of almost €6 million, announced yesterday by Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar and Minister of State Michael Ring.

Garnish island in Cork will receive €2.4 million for an interpretative centre at its gardens. Funding of €430,353 will be used for an international-standard mountain bike trail in Killarney and €212,250 will go to develop camping and activity facilities at Lough Rynn in Co Leitrim.

Some 180,000 jobs in the Republic are in the tourism sector and Mr Varadkar said the industry was starting to recover with tourism numbers up almost 10 per cent this year.

The Book of Kells with 500,000 visitors a year is “one of the top-five visitor attractions in the State where people actually pay to come into it”. It made “sense that the attraction is updated and the visitor experience is improved so that people will continue to visit”.

Mr Varadkar said applications were made to Fáilte Ireland and assessed on their merits and as to their potential for tourism and employment. In the past two years Fáilte Ireland has invested €60 million in 39 projects.

But the Minister warned there would be less money for tourism capital in the future. “I’m delighted that these projects are definitely going ahead even thought the money will be drawn down over a number of years, but it’s going to be much tighter from here on it.”

Mr Ring said tourists had a huge choice of international destinations. “We must do all we can to ensure that Ireland is firmly on the international tourism map and a very desirable location to visit.”

Fáilte Ireland chief executive Shaun Quinn said the organisation was ensuring that the investment “is in projects and areas that will bring the best results in terms of visitor interest and those that make the most economic sense”.