The cancellation of Paddy Casey’s Christmas show at The Savoy has led  Cork promoters and councillors to highlight that the city is losing out on some major artists due to the long-running delay in the provision of a conference centre.

While the issue over the possible construction of a mixed-use centre at Mahon Point was finally laid to rest, following developer Owen O’Callaghan’s payment of a €6.1m trade centre penalty bond on Monday evening, the debate over the event centre continues.

Speaking at Monday night's City Council meeting, Fine Gael Councillor Dara Murphy said that the city was losing out on a number of events because of the serious competitiveness offered by neighbouring counties, particularly Killarney and its INEC venue.

The Fine Gael councillor claimed that a scheduled performance by chart-topping Irish songwriter Paddy Casey at the Savoy Theatre in December was cancelled because of a stipulation in his contract with the INEC that prevents him from playing either Cork or Limerick.

“This,” said Cllr Murphy, “is unacceptable to the people of Cork who are subsequently being forced to pay more than is necessary for travel expenses, accommodation and food. These stipulations in contracts are a major issue and it’s important that people realise what’s going on. But it’s part of a bigger picture. While we moan and bitch over small issues with the conference centre for Cork, we are actually putting costs on our own citizens. We need this to be able to compete to stop this kind of thing happening again in the future.”

Tom Keating, the show’s promoter says its not the first time this has happened.

“These stipulations prevent artists from playing here a lot. I’ve had a number of shows pulled on account of these contracts. These stipulations have ended up costing me in the past.”

Shane Clancy of the INEC admitted the stipulations were in place on certain gigs but denied any accusations of wrong-doing. “These barring clauses are in place on certain gigs depending on the artists ability to draw an audience. The radius goes as far as 150 miles which does include Cork and are quite commonplace. However, the decision to implement the clause ultimately lies with the management and artist.”

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