White-water rafting dock will be a mecca for stag and hen trips
DUBLIN’S new white-water rafting facility is likely to become a mecca for stag and hen parties when it opens as early as 2023.
The €22m facility has been welcomed by north city residents, despite angry complaints last week when it was announced in the middle of the housing crisis.
Kayak and canoe clubs, as well as Dublin Fire Brigade, support the project in George’s Dock, which it will use for training. It is also expected to be a boon for tourism. Dublin City Council official Derek Kelly said the council visited a similar facility in Cardiff to get ideas for the Dublin project in the IFSC.
It’s expected to be a boon from tourism
A staff member at Cardiff said it is hugely popular with stags and hens and other tourists and much of its marketing is aimed at them.The Cardiff Centre draws in 80,000 visitors a year, far exceeding their projected figures.
‘Our business case is based on 30,000,’ said Mr Kelly. A council spokesperson said they expect 36,000 visitors by the fifth year.
‘That would generate a surplus in income over expenditure for the operation of the facility,’ he said.
It has been reported that the cost jumped from €12m to €22m in the past year. But figures seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday show that €16m was mooted when the project was first discussed last year.
Tourism grant aid is expected to cover €10m of that funding, with at least €6m from Docklands fund levies. The council says it will run the facility indefinitely and vowed this week that it would never end up in private hands. Charges have not yet been decided, but prices should be in line with facilities in the UK, the spokesperson said.
The Cardiff centre charges £40 (€47.40) to £55 (€65) for two hours of white-water rafting, including equipment and protective clothing.
There are discounts for groups, and family prices are £22.50
(€26.60) to £25 (€29.60) per person.
However, local Dublin children will be able to access the facility for a fee of €10 per group, according to Dublin City Council.
The children, some of whom swim in the Liffey in the summer months, were mentioned by numerous councillors at this week’s meeting where the project was approved.
‘Everybody wanted to know that these kids would be looked after,’ said Independent councillor Christy Burke, who says his grandson regularly swims in the Liffey.
‘It’s going to be a great facility for the young people of the area. Young girls and boys will be trained up in how to do the rafting with a view to them working there. It can only be good for the area. It looks like an open grave at the moment.’
George’s Dock was the venue for the Oktoberfest German beer festival and Christmas market, but the Oktoberfest was cancelled this year because of insurance costs.
As well as white-water rafting, the plan is that the new watersports centre would host rafting, kayaking and water-rescue training. The plans involve converting the early 19th-century dock into a mechanically-propelled rafting facility with a water polo pitch and an emergency service training centre. The 100m-by-70m basin is between the
IFSC and Custom House Quay.
Insurance costs will be covered by the council’s existing sports and leisure facilities policy.
Firefighters told Dublin City councillors this week that they rescue about 100 people each year from water, more than they do from fires. They train in the Liffey, and some have had to be rescued while training and others were sick from the dirty water.
The water in the centre will be treated by Irish Water, and the council will have to pay to have it filled, councillor were told.
The facility was the idea of the council’s head of planning Richard Shakespeare, head of parks Les Moore, and chief executive Owen Keegan. Mr Kelly said all three thought white-water rafting would be a good use of the site and good for the city. ‘They have been done in other docks in the UK and around the world,’ he said.
The council hired architecture firm Urban Agency and engineering consultants Patrick Parsons and Peter Brett Associates to help draw up plans and a business case.
Mr Kelly said the impetus came from the need to find a new use for George’s Dock – and stems from the council’s plans to get more use out of the obsolete canal and shipping infrastructure.
The council originally looked at moving the Famine ship, the Jeanie Johnston, into George’s Dock. But the €3m price-tag was judged bad value. The idea of a floating garden was also considered but the parks service thought it would be too costly and hard to maintain.
However former justice minister, Senator Michael McDowell, criticised the rafting plan, in a newspaper column, saying: ‘An elected council that could tolerate such a grotesque failure in managing priorities deserves the sack.’
Director of Inner City Helping Homeless and Independent city councillor Anthony Flynn described the proposal as ‘crazy’ given the current housing crisis.
‘When this was first proposed to us, the council had estimated that it would cost €12m,’ he said.
Now it has risen to an astronomical €22m and who is to say that it won’t increase further?