Talks to reopen on hosting Tour de France Grand Départ on cross-border basis  - video Dailymotion

Talks to reopen on hosting Tour de France Grand Départ on cross-border basis

Transcript

00:00 In July 2023, discussions on a potential all-Ireland bid to host the Tour de France Grand Depart were

00:05 suspended, largely due to the absence of an executive. Since coming into post, I have

00:10 instructed my officials to reopen that dialogue. As part of those deliberations, the cost of a bid

00:15 would have to be weighed against the benefits. I note that in 2014, when the Giro d'Italia

00:19 Grand Partenza was hosted in Ireland, it generated around £2.5 million in economic activity,

00:26 £12.7 million in tourism impact and around 227,000 visitors.

00:30 Gora Milgood, I thank the Minister for his response. He alluded to the £2.45 benefit for

00:41 every pound spent in bringing the Giro d'Italia here. That included £13 million in additional

00:46 tourism spend, £12 million in free advertisement worldwide to over 56 million viewers. Does the

00:51 Minister agree that events such as the Tour de France or the European Soccer Championship

00:57 brought to Ireland have a positive benefit for our economy, tourism and business in general?

01:03 Yes, it is well recognised that it requires some up-front investment. That is at a time

01:10 when we are very challenged financially in terms of the funding available to the executive. Most

01:16 of these large events have shown that, and I think it would be no different, hopefully,

01:20 on the basis that we can secure the euro. I hope that all these events would tend to have a longer

01:27 lasting economically beneficial outcome, certainly in terms of tourism, which is a growing market

01:33 first and the key part of our industry. I would certainly be approaching from the point of view

01:39 of what the investment can achieve. The question for the Department is set against all the other

01:44 priorities that it has, whether we can secure the necessary investment. I look forward to doing the

01:50 analysis and rejoining the discussion on that, which has been parked as a consequence of no

01:54 executive, and to see what the estimations are for it and what we can hope to achieve.

01:58 Like you, I would not pretend to be as keen a cyclist as you, but I do enjoy the odd spin on

02:05 my bike. I was present for the Giro, and I have to say that it was certainly a great event,

02:10 particularly due to the fact that it came through South Armagh as well.