Plans for Christmas in Limerick in 2024 already underway

CHRISTMAS “madness” has seemingly crept into the chambers of Limerick Council, as festive plans for the 2024 season are already underway.

At a meeting of the Metropolitan District of Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) members heard of plans for a “workshop” in January of 2024, to actively plan for Christmas next year.

Gordon Daly, director of economic development, enterprise and tourism, with LCCC, confirmed the plans following several proposals at the previous meeting.

However, Councillor Sarah Kiely called Mr Daly’s proposal of a January workshop, similar to one that took place early in 2023, the “definition of madness.”

“We are going to do the same thing we did last year and expect a different outcome,” she added.

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One topic that was discussed was this year’s lack of any ceremony to mark the turning on of the lights, an event which has proven popular in recent years.

However, according to Mr Daly, if they were to take 2019 - the last year before Covid-19 - as a benchmark for expenditure for the event, the light-up festival would take a large part of this year’s Christmas budget.

According to Mr Daly, this year’s budget for Christmas expenditure was €140,000 while in 2019, the total cost for the light-up ceremony was €100,000, meaning that there would be little reserve left for other festivities which have taken place across the city this year..

The topic of “commercial sponsorship” was also discussed by Mr Daly, for next year’s events.

The meeting heard the views of multiple councillors, including Councillor Daniel Butler, who called for a “clear framework” and “clear KPIs” to be outlined early in the year.

“You talk about a review in January, we did that last January, and we are still here, less than 12 months later, with nothing done,” Cllr Butler added.

Councillor Elisa O’Donovan, who welcomed plans for commercial sponsorship, asked that the January workshop be made public, to allow stakeholders to “thrash it out” early in the year.