St Paul’s Basketball Club is paying out between €35,000 and €40,000 per year to use the facilities at the Killarney Sports and Leisure Complex where the club is the anchor tenant, a meeting of Killarney Municipal District Council has been told.
But there is sufficient interest from other potential users when St Paul’s move to the new sports centre currently being constructed at Derreen, it was stressed.
Cllr Brendan Cronin, who raised the matter, said the basketball club has been a tremendous source of support and income for the current facility and he wished the club well when it moves to the new building further along the Killarney bypass road.
The Scott’s Lakers St Paul’s and Utility First teams play their home games at the existing centre and the facility is also used by the club’s underage squads.
The meeting was told that for the financial year ending December 2022 – the latest figures available – the total income at the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre was €1,066,400 and total expenses were €1,082,014.
The income included a subvention from Kerry County Council of €160,000.
Provision of €411,000 has been made in the 2024 budget and the allocation includes provision for loans of €74,713 for an energy efficiency upgrade.
It also includes administration and technical support, salary costs, ICT expenses, insurance costs and a provision for the capital replacement fund towards leisure centre operations.
Cllr Cronin asked what will happen to the current centre when the anchor tenant is no longer there and if the council will have to subsidise the facility to an even greater extent?
Killarney Municipal District Manager, Angela McAllen, said there are other potential clients who had expressed an interest in using the facility, operated by Coral, at the same times as the current tenants use it and there won’t be a void.
“Kerry Council certainly puts its shoulder to the wheel on this project,” she said.
The new sports hall being build at Derreen will be shared by St Paul’s with the Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club, Killarney Judo Club and others.
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