Limerick Mayor speaks out on shock closure of €30million ...

A PUBLIC meeting of members of Limerick City and County Council is understood to be in motion for this coming Tuesday (October 29) to discuss what options, if any, lie ahead for the soon-to-shutter International Rugby Experience on Limerick City’s main thoroughfare.

There has been much outrage across Limerick since the news broke late this past Thursday evening that the €30million prestige building, which defines the skyline on O’Connell Street in Limerick City, will shut its doors for the final time on December 23 – only 16 months since it first opened to great fanfare.

In April of this year, it was announced that the 30,000sq/ft building and its entire operations were to be gifted to Limerick City and County Council, with Discover Limerick DAC to oversee its day-to-day operations.

Today, Limerick Mayor John Moran said that the ultimate decision for the future of the building lies with local councillors and whether they decide to divert funds from the Council budget to the “loss-making” tourist attraction, or with national government and whether it is “willing to invest in Limerick and save this situation”.

The shock announcement of the closure came from a representative of the International Rugby Experience (IRE) late on Thursday evening, confirming the museum “will cease operations and close its doors on December 23rd this year” after the Council and the building’s owner, the JP McManus Charitable Foundation, were unable to get past the finish line on the handover process.

The multi-million euro IRE was first opened in May 2023, described as the brainchild of billionaire JP McManus and fronted by Munster Rugby legend Paul O’Connell.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Drivetime programme this Friday evening, Mayor John Moran said that while he wasn’t surprised by the news of the closure, he was “particularly sad because I’m a big supporter of people who want to try out new things and have ambition for Limerick”.

A cost benefit analysis

Questioned on why the Council could not find a way to make the gifting of the building work, he said: “If you could gift to the State a very nice hospital in the morning, but you don’t have the money to actually have nurses and doctors working in that hospital, the gift of the hospital isn’t any use you.”

“What has happened here was an act of supreme generosity by the McManus Foundation – which of course has done great things for Limerick, not just this year but in many other years – on a concept that unfortunately we all acknowledge is loss making.

“And so the question becomes – who can actually find the funds to do that (keep it going)?”

Mayor Moran confirmed an independent expert was jointly appointed by the Council and the JP McManus Charitable Foundation to assess the gifting of the landmark building – including how the operation could be turned over and at what cost.

He said that the input from the independent expert was brought to councillors for discussion last week and it was put forward that there “simply just aren’t enough funds” to take on the loss-making tourist attraction.

The Mayor acknowledged that a €1.2million gift from the JP McManus Charitable Foundation, to go along with the handover of the building, would not be enough to keep the IRE open and afloat, suggesting that “several hundred thousand more” would need to be put up from the Council budget.

Mayor Moran said that it would take “significant cuts to the budget and services in Limerick” to make the handover of the IRE work. Photo: Don Moloney.

On top of these operating costs, Mayor Moran suggested a number of other costs would be incurred by the Council as part of the transfer, telling RTÉ’s Drivetime that stamp duty on the building would need to be paid – which he said had a resale value in the region of €5m.

He said that “from a cost benefit analysis, from a State perspective, what we are talking to the councillors about is, if you take a building over that is worth €5million, with something that currently is loss making and needs therefore more investment to be turned around, needed to change the concept, or whatever – how do you actually do that in a way that justifies the extra costs the State would make, which could be over the next seven or eight years an amount in excess of the value of the value of the building?”

It is understood that, once handed over by the JP McManus Charitable Foundation to the State, one stipulation of the gifting is that the building could never be sold by Limerick City and County Council and that it must remain unchanged in its use as the loss-making rugby experience for a period of three years.

A statement on behalf of the IRE yesterday said that “the intention was to gift this architecturally significant, award-winning building to the State and in so doing help with visitor footfall to Limerick city centre”.

“This gift offer, along with a €1.2million donation, was made to Limerick City and County Council in October 2023, with Heads of Terms signed by both parties in March 2024. The proposed offer would have seen the building free to be used for any civic purpose by Limerick City and County Council after 2028.”

Finding a way forward

As regards the future of the building, which the IRE has assured will honour all existing bookings and events before December 23 (including the upcoming Santa’s Secret Workshop), Mayor Moran suggested that rather than the decision resting on his shoulders, the ball lies with either local councillors to agree on sweeping cuts to the local budget and double down on the commitment to the IRE, or with national government “if they are willing to invest in Limerick and save this situation”.

He said that “we are having a Council meeting again on this on Tuesday (October 29) because the councillors need to decide if there’s no money coming from national government … we have to find very significant cuts to the budget and the services in Limerick to have the money deployed to this.”

“And whether that’s the right decision or not, as I said last week to them, there are many reasons why we would want to do this, but there are an awful lot of reasons why you wouldn’t. So we need to try and have time to figure that out.”

It is understood that around 50 people are currently employed at the city centre tourist attraction.

As of this moment, the building remains in the ownership of billionaire horse racing mogul JP McManus, who owns a string of other properties including the five star Adare Manor hotel and spa resort set to host the Ryder Cup golf tournament in 2027.

Earlier today, elected Council members called for an emergency special meeting to be held this coming Tuesday to “find a way forward” and come good on the McManus family’s gift.

Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler shared on X (formerly Twitter) that a meeting had been confirmed for 4pm on Tuesday to “get answers to the many questions we all have and ultimately find a way forward”.

The request for the special meeting was put forward by Cllr Butler, along with his Fine Gael party colleagues Dan McSweeney, Sarah Kiely, Peter Doyle, and Olivia O’Sullivan.