Calls for increase in 'inadequate' festival grants after St Patrick's Day success

Louth County Council have been told its current festival grants budget is "inadequate" and should be increased for 2027. 

The comments were made by Dundalk councillor Maeve Yore at the March meeting of Louth County Council, who said the local authority's budget of €200,000, which is divided among 90 festivals "won't work" and called for it to be increased for next year.

It comes off the back of a successful St Patrick's Day parade in the town, despite having been cancelled in January due to "a lack of confirmed funding" according to the parade's organising committee before being saved after talks between stakeholders. 

Documents obtained by the Dundalk Democrat through a Freedom of Information request showed that the costs of staging the parade had almost doubled for this year's parade to just shy of €60,000.

Cathaoirleach of the Dundalk Municipal District, Cllr Robert Nash thanked Louth County Council for its assistance in the parade. 

"There’s no doubt about it, the parade wouldn’t have happened if Louth County Council hadn’t given some assistance," he said. 

However, Cllr Nash, who was a part of the talks which saved the town's parade, said St Patrick's Day parades in the county should receive funding "under another umbrella" instead of the festival grants scheme. 

"We’ve talked about this before, the St Patrick's Day parade is bigger than any other festival, we need to look at other funding and it possibly should be under another umbrella. 

I know that Dublin City Council parades are highly funded by Fáilte Ireland. Maybe we should be looking at arts or cultural grants," he said. 

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A spokesperson for Louth County Council said it will be reviewing festival guidelines with the view to increasing funds and improving the scheme for 2027. 

"We want to increase the number of events and festivals in the area because it leads to tourism, and brings more tourism in so it is something we will be looking at for 2027," she said. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.