The fledgling dolphin-watching industry on the Shannon estuary suffered a blow yesterday after Bord Fáilte turned down an application for grant funding to establish a visitor centre in Kilrush.
In recent years, numbers dolphin-watching on the Shannon estuary - a proposed Special Area of Conservation - have increased by 400 per cent.
This year it is estimated that 15,000 people went on organised boat trips to view the only resident dolphin population in Ireland, contributing €1.5 million in indirect revenues to the local economy.
Shannon Dolphin Development Ltd lodged an application for funding with Bord Fáilte for the €1.5 million centre.
The Kilrush-based promoters expected by the centre's third year operating, it would attract 30,000 visitors and experience a growth rate of 8 per cent per annum.
According to Dr Simon Berrow, project manager of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation, the application has been turned down: "It is very frustrating. A lot of money and time since 1998 has been spent on the application to bring it to this stage, but to fall at the first hurdle of the application process is hard to take. The centre is not going to happen now."
