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ADMISSION CHARGES TO certain Office of Public Works (OPW) heritage sites are being waived as part of the government’s July Stimulus Plan in an effort to encourage domestic tourism and support for the tourist economy.
The charges will be waived from this Monday and the measure will remain in place until the end of the year. It is hoped that this will help provide a greater appeal to Irish people to stay at home and take staycations and short breaks within Ireland particularly over the next six months.
The OPW manages 70 visitor sites around the country including some of the most iconic historic locations like the Rock of Cashel, Dún Aonghasa and Castletown House. Last year they attracted a total of over 9.3 million visitors.
Minister of State for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan today announced that many of these places will have either reduced admission fees or no charges at all for the rest of this year.
A small number of the busiest sites will not be offered with free admission as the OPW said there are concerns that they might be “overwhelmed with large numbers of visitors and create a significant Covid-19 risk”.
The OPW sites that will have fully free admission are:
Clonmacnoise, Garinish Island and the Rock of Cashel will have half price admission charges for the rest of the year.
“Hopefully people will be able to discover something new or maybe they’ll be able to relive a childhood experience with their own families,” the OPW said today. “But we would encourage everyone to get out there and see what Ireland has to offer.”
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At last a sensible solution. Thanks.
A lot of them were already free.
@The Shape: most of them
Botanic gardens are already free
mad how they charge you to look at your own stuff.
LIke visiting the rock of cashel, forced to be a catholic to get into school and then charge 20 quid to go to mass.
@Aodhan Maguire: Cashel will be half price anyway, and it’s always been free to locals.
@Aodhan Maguire: So would you be quite happy if everyone just visited all these sites without any limits and eventually leads to damage and for them to go into disrepair. If you do that’s fair enough, but don’t expect to have these sites available and maintained and then at the same time want them to be free.
If they could maybe throw in some nice weather
Trim castle grounds & Hill of Tara already free
@Linda: I paid an admission fee to Trim Castle year – I must have been had !
This is the first I’ve heard that there was ever a charge to visit Dún Aonghusa. Is it not enough that people visiting have travelled to the island?
Counting myself lucky that I saw it by following our patient guide: the dog from our B&B, whom we didn’t even have to tip ;-)
I’ve just been to Dún Aonghusa… Its already free, only seen an OPW umbrella when leaving.
May need to Fact check @Journal.ie
“The OPW sites which will have fully fee admission are”
Surely that ‘fee’ ought to be “free”!
Affordable accommodation in these places is the problem. We need more family friendly hostels. Once you have children it’s impossible to holiday here.
have your say