There’s excitement in the air as various agricultural shows have been scheduled for 2022. More than 120 are set to make a welcome return this year, following two years of disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to this its understood that €400,000 has been allocated as funding for the shows this year. But the exact total of the funding is yet to be confirmed.
Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien confirmed that, in 2019, total funding of €600,000 was granted to the Irish Shows Association (ISA) to support the running of shows in 2020. The funding was provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development and was held in a trust since 2019 by the ISA to be carried forward and used by the shows when they became operational again.
According to Minister O’Brien, the shows continued to incur operational costs during the lockdown period and following a request by the ISA, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, agreed in 2021 that €200,000 of the total funding held in trust could be used to cover these costs. The Minister explained that the costs included web hosting, domain names, storage of equipment, rent of land and office space, and bank costs.
LSL News.