Lack of state help ‘forced Web Summit out’

Yesterday, the event organisers published correspondence between them and senior Government officials, showing how relationships deteriorated significantly in the four weeks prior the announcement that the event was being moved to Portugal.

He also wrote: “We want to stay in in Dublin, but without a plan for the city we can not stay in Dublin”.

These costs, often pitched at an apparently arbitrary level, are faced on an ongoing basis by promoters and event management companies here in Ireland – so that the complaints of the Web Summit are far from unique.

Last month, Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave announced that the technology showcase would be moving from its annual RDS location to the MEO Arena in Lisbon. But after three years of asking and asking, we still don’t even have one single page outlining even a basic committed plan for the city.

Responding to the concerns raised by Mr Cosgrave, he said: “These are things that would have been resolved in the context of the event happening here in Dublin in 2016”.

This is the Blog where Paddy Cosgrave explained his decision to release the letter copies. “Ten thousand attendees ended up having to walk back to their hotels”.

“A high-level task force will oversee and coordinate arrangements for engagement, with subgroups and mechanisms as needed for different strands such as logistics, and engagement with attendees”, said a document sent by the Department.

And he said that “financial support” from Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland existed through the booking of exhibition space at the Web Summit.

“At present, for whatever reason, there is no appetite for real political engagement”, he said.

Tánaiste Joan Burton says the coalition did everything it could to satisfy the Web Summit’s founders.

“The Taoiseach’s Department as I understand it, made every effort to assist”.

“I think the Government offered a huge amount of active support to the Web Summit, the Taoiseach in particular”.

She said that “everybody involved was anxious to see it remain in Ireland” but “it is a commercial venture at the end of the day” and they “found better terms and conditions in other European countries”.

For its part, Dublin City Council – who were criticised by implication in the correspondence released, not least in relation to an alleged absence of a traffic plan for the event – issued a statement this afternoon insisting that it has been very supportive of the Web Summit over the years and that everything possible and within reason was done to facilitate it.

“We’ve got the technology to meet any challenge”, he added.