Delegation to meet Fáilte Ireland in bid to move tourist office

A delegation from Athlone Town Council is to meet Fáilte Ireland to discuss moving the tourist office out of the castle after independent Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne raised what was described as "an old chestnut" at the July meeting of the council. Cllr Buckley Byrne asked that the council meet with Fáilte Ireland to discuss the future presence of a tourist office at a more accessible location to the public in Athlone. She said she believed it was an issue and would like the council to acknowledge that it needed to be moved. Fianna Fáil Cllr Kieran Molloy said the tourist office could be located in the centre of town, but said a lot of visitors to the town were now using the internet to source information. Fine Gael Cllr Alan Shaw told the meeting he agreed with Cllr Buckley Byrne"s motion and said the tourist office should be relocated to a more visible location. 'It"s certainly something we heard on the doorsteps. It"s important that we see action on this very soon,' said Cllr Shaw. Cllr Jim Henson (Lab) said one of the issues was that the castle just wasn"t open half the time. 'We get bus loads of elderly people who can"t walk up to the castle, we should get it down to the banks of the Shannon,' he said. Fine Gael"s Gabrielle McFadden said the tourist office should be open all year round. Cllr McFadden said Athlone was sending out a message that it was only open from April to September and asked who owned the premises. Town Clerk John Walsh said the premises was owned by Fáilte Ireland and said Fáilte Ireland could open it and close it as often as it wanted to. He explained that the tourist board had spent £90,000 on the premises in 1991 and said Fáilte Ireland had been offered alternative locations in the past. Sinn Féin"s Paul Hogan said there were two issues involved - opening times and accessibility. He said a number of buses had pulled up and people had found it difficult to access the office. 'Fáilte Ireland is a separate entity. It"s their obligation to promote tourism in the town. A meeting with them could be very beneficial,' said Cllr Hogan. 'I think a delegation from the council might highlight the concerns the general public relayed to us.' Mayor Mark Cooney said he had no difficulty in meeting with Fáilte Ireland, but said he thought it might be more beneficial if a representative of Fáilte Ireland came to address a public meeting of the council. Cllr Buckley Byrne said: 'I understand Fáilte Ireland has a separate role, but we have a role to support businesses and reflect the public"s views, but we have to find a way to feed into businesses and restaurants in the town etc. A lot of people are calling into businesses to find things out about the town and people are going into Citizen"s Information, we have to be proactive.' She said she thought a delegation should meet Fáilte Ireland first and then invite them to a public forum. 'I think we have to have a serious conversation with Fáilte Ireland,' she said. Mayor Cooney agreed that a deputation should meet Fáilte Ireland first and then the tourist board should be invited to a public meeting. Mayor Cooney, Cllr Buckley Byrne and Cllr Aengus O"Rourke were selected to represent the council at the meeting.