An opportunity for Kerry to host a round of the World Rally Championship has been lost due to the unavailability of government funding.

A local bid team , that included former World Rally Championship co-driver Paul Nagle put forward an extensive proposition to Motorsport Ireland late last year.

The local team put forward the North Campus of MTU Kerry in Tralee as the event’s main hub and that Killarney would host the fan zone.

It was confirmed by Motorsport Ireland in January that three locations, Tralee, Waterford and Limerick, would each host the event on a rotation basis between 2025 and 2027 if government funding was put in place.

The promoters of the World Rally Championship set a deadline of mid-March to secure the funding so they could finalise the championship calendar.

That was deadline was pushed forward to Monday this week as the FIA World Council meets this week where a provisional 2025 calendar would be discussed.

With the funding not forthcoming by Monday evening, Motorsport Ireland issued a statement stating that the

Motorsport Ireland first approached the Government back in early 2023 and in June of that year had a fruitful meeting with Minister Thomas Byrne and his colleagues where they presented how we can showcase Ireland on the world stage by bringing the World Rally Championship to Ireland for a three-year period.

In the meeting Motorsport Ireland were complimented by Minister Byrne that they were doing the right thing by coming good and early with respect to a funding request for a 2025 event.

“After the meeting we were referred to the Major Sports Events Unit whom we engaged with and submitted a full event screening application on October 6 2023,” said Motorsport Ireland president Aiden Harper.

“To date, Motorsport Ireland have received no questions or feedback on any of the documents we submitted, despite multiple communications to the Department asking if additional information was required. To learn on the last day of our extension from the promoter that Minister Byrne’s Department now require another six months to undertake further independent assessments and analysis is very frustrating.

“From the beginning Motorsport Ireland have been very clear that March 2024 was the cutoff for receiving acknowledgment if we were successful or not in our request for funding. This deadline wasn’t chosen by Motorsport Ireland, this was an operational deadline set by the World Rally Championship promoter. The demand for the limited number of slots in the WRC calendar is running at an all-time high and the promoter is in a position to choose host countries that are able to commit and thus benefit from a multi-year major event strategy. The promoter cut-off date must be respected so that they can plan their 2025-2027 calendar.”

Despite Motorsport Ireland’s early application the department said it needed more time to evaluate the bid paperwork.

“It is important to note that a Government decision is needed in order to approve the allocation of the significant resources required for hosting major sports event, like the World Rally Championship, including in areas such as security, transport and other logistics. It should also be noted that any decision by Government to provide funding to support the hosting of major sporting events needs to be underpinned by an independent economic analysis and business case,” said Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
“In light of the need for more detailed assessment and further information and given that Motorsport Ireland proposes to host the World Rally Championship in a relatively short time, the Department is unable to commit to public monies towards supporting an event starting in 2025, given the need for further and thorough assessment.”