#VOR - The Irish Independent reports that Dun Laoghaire is considering a tender for the Volvo Ocean Race to cash in on the success of the event in Galway this summer.
Despite attracting nearly one million spectators to the City of the Tribes and brining tens of millions of euro into the local economy, Galway is not expected to bid for the next edition of the race in 2014-2015, with race organisers Let's Do It Global citing the need to concentrate on paying off its outstanding debts to suppliers.
That decision paves the way for Dun Laoghaire to table its own bid for the round-the-world yacht race in 2016, after Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council passed a motion to enter consultations with Fáilte Ireland.
With both Fáilte Ireland and the Government potentially stepping up €5 million of the expected €8 million total cost, Dun Laoghaire's hosting of a VOR stopover would be predicated on raising the remaining €3 million.
Councillor John Bailey, who proposed the motion, told the Evening Herald in June: "We need to bring the 2016 race to Dun Laoghaire. It's too late to apply for 2014, but we could make it a great success in 2016."
It's not the first time Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown councillors have eyed the race.
In 2010 Cllr Gearóid O'Keeffe, seconded by Cllr Jim O'Leary, proposed that the council invite Volvo Ocean Race organisers "to designate Dún Laoghaire as a port of call".
However, the south Dublin town's gestures towards hosting this year's edition of the race were scuppered by a lack of available funding, and a tender was never submitted.
A council spokesperson said at the time that the costs associated with hosting the event were "substantial" and that the council wasn't "in a position to underwrite these costs".
Dun Laoghaire also reportedly failed to bid for the VOR in 2009, which sparked a row among councillors after it emerged that Galway's staging of the race that year generated €55 million for the city's economy.