Clare County Council’s €32 million visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience has attracted a lot of negative publicity in the middle of the holiday season.

In the first instance management at the facility refused to implement a Labour Court recommendation that staff be provided with the same rates of pay, sick pay and premium pay equivalent to their counterparts directly employed by Clare County Council.

This was followed by a wave of criticism in the national media after management hiked up their admission prices in a statement that described the move as a “family friendly price structure”.

At a recent meeting of

Clare County Council, the local authority tried to distance itself from the operations of the loss making €32 million visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher.

North Clare councillor Martin Conway had asked the council for “details of recent labour court recommendations which involve this council and what plans are in place to implement same”.

However human resources officer Leonard Cleary replied that, “Clare County Council was not involved in a Labour Court hearing in 2010”.

Mr Cleary did acknowledge that a subsidiary company, the Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd., had received the outcome of a Labour Court hearing.

The action taken by SIPTU had sought the same terms and conditions for workers at the Cliffs of Moher as apply to local authority employees.

In its ruling, the Labour Court recommended that the Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd initiate discussions with their staff with regard to providing rates of pay, sick pay and premium pay equivalent to their council counterparts.

The company subsequently claimed that it is unable to implement the Labour Court recommendation.

A statement was issued to the effect that “the company, which manages and operates the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre on behalf of the owners Clare County Council, says the centre would not be in a position to sustain a significant increase in operating costs”.

According to company manager Katherine Webster, “The effect of implementing the Labour Court recommendation would lead to an annual cost increase of the order of €400,000, which the centre would not be able to sustain and which would seriously undermine our future viability.”

It was further stated that the visitor centre made significant losses in 2008 and 2009, a trend that is expected to continue during 2010.

Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd. employs 24 full-time staff at the visitor centre with additional recruitment talking place over the summer season.

Soon after the company announced that it was putting in place a new price structure from the end of July to the effect that all adults who now want to see the famous cliffs must pay €6 each on admission to the car park.

Previously there was a single charge of €8 per car with an optional charge of €4.95 for admission to the interpretative centre at the Cliffs of Moher Experience.

According to Katherine Webster, “We received a lot of feedback suggesting that a single charge that covered all aspects of the visit would be easier for people to understand”.

The subsequent storm of negative publicity, particularly on the very popular Joe Duffy ‘Liveline’ radio programme on RTE, heard people from right across the country vent their frustration at being charged to view one of the country’s best known natural attractions.

Writing in the national press, well known media commentator Terry Prone captured the public mood when she wrote that visitors did not approve of the magnificent visitors’ centre.

“They voted with their feet, as you do when what you want to do is walk along the top of a natural phenomenon. You don't necessarily want to pay to visit an architecturally pleasing visitors' centre. So they skipped that part and went straight to the cliffs.

“The end-result is that the visitors' centre failed to make money. Worse, it lost money. It lost a shedload of money”.

According to Ms. Prone, “Effectively, the visitors centre is putting a levy on a natural phenomenon. Everywhere else, visitors are free to view Ireland's spectacular places of beauty without charge.

“They can look at the fjord in Carlingford or the lakes in Glendalough or the Giants' Causeway in Antrim and, if they want, they can choose to find out more about them or buy souvenirs in local tourist or heritage centres.

“It's not a lot of money. But it's a dangerous precedent. If a product or service doesn't sell, the right thing to do is re-examine it. Not cover its costs by forcing people to pay up when they clearly don't want to, by limiting their freedom of movement”.