Will Tour be cycling back to Ireland?
DISCUSSIONS over an all-Ireland bid to host the opening stages of the Tour de France – which last came to these shores all the way back in 1998 – are to be restarted by officials in the North.
Northern Ireland Economy Minister Conor Murphy said previous talks on a joint bid to host the Grand Depart of the world’s most famous cycle race in the North and the Republic were suspended because of the absence of a Stormont Executive, but that he now wanted to explore what bringing the event to the island could achieve. The 2014 Giro D’Italia cycle race featured stages on both sides of the Irish border and was hailed for its economic and tourist impact.
At ministerial question time yesterday, Mr Murphy was asked if there are plans to submit an all-Ireland bid to host the opening stages of the Tour de France.
He said: ‘In July 2023 discussions on a potential all-Ireland bid to host the Tour de France Grand Depart were suspended largely due to the absence of an Executive.
Since coming into post I have instructed my officials to reopen that dialogue.
‘As part of those deliberations the cost of the bid would have to be weighed against the benefits.
‘I do note that in 2014, when the Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza was hosted in Ireland, it generated around £2.5million in economic activity, £12.7million in tourism impact and around 227,000 visitors.’
Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan asked the minister about the economic benefits of bringing events such as the Tour de France and the Euro 2028 soccer tournament to the North. Mr Murphy said: ‘I think it’s well recognised that, of course, it does require some upfront investment and that is a time when we are very, very challenged financially, in terms of the funding available to the Executive.
‘But I think most of these large events have shown, and I think it would be no different hopefully on the basis that we could secure the Euros coming here as well, all these events would tend to have a longer-lasting economic, economically beneficial outcome, and certainly in terms of tourism, which is a growing market for us and the key part of our industry here.
‘So yes, I would certainly be approaching from the point of view of what the investment can achieve.’
He said he was looking forward to ‘doing the analysis, rejoining the discussion on that which had been parked as a consequence of no Executive, and see what the estimations are for it and what we can hope to achieve’.