Ireland loses World Rally Championship - ‘Big Event Taskforce Needed’ - Mac Sharry

Senator Marc Mac Sharry has today called for the immediate establishment of a ‘Big Event Task Force’ to ensure Ireland and in particular Sligo and the North west region find an early replacement for the prestigious and lucrative World Rally Championship which the FIA in Paris yesterday announced is not to return to Ireland in 2011.

Mac Sharry had warned against tampering with the successful Sligo based format by moving the entire WRC to the east coast and his concerns have proven valid as it has clearly undermined international confidence.

Mac Sharry, a pioneer and promoter of the Rally Ireland project since it was merely a dream said “It has now been proven beyond any doubt that Ireland led by Sligo and the northwest region can successfully pursue, bid for and host world level events such as the World Rally Championship. Indeed its performance in doing so has shown that the template it provided surpassed the best the rest of the world had to offer in terms of organisation, infrastructure, support services and in particular global TV network coverage”.

“In its first attempt, the Sligo based event generated more than € 40 million euro to the Irish Economy and let the Irish landscape form the back drop for some 800 million viewers who watched the event world wide”.

“I am therefore calling for the immediate establishment of a task force to include senior personnel from the Departments of Arts Sport and Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Enterprise Trade & Employment, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland to be chaired by the Tánaiste and immediately focus on identifying other events to be hosted by Sligo and the northwest region of similar calibre, size and global appeal. The sporting, cultural, promotional and financial rewards of hosting such events mean that not to establish such a task force and adopting such a focused approach would be negligent in the extreme”.

“We have a winning formula, let’s build on our success and act now in the promotion of our nation and our regions as world class locations for global events. They laughed before when we had a dream. Rally Ireland proved that we can make the dream a reality once again. Let’s waste no time”.