State organisations benefited from grants handed out by tourist body Fáilte Ireland under a €24 million digital scheme, figures show.
The tourism development organisation paid €17.5 million over four years to consultants Core Optimisation to run a scheme to boost attraction’s online sales, it emerged recently.
The Shannon-based company, which employs 60 people, said the programme, Digital that Delivers, supports 600 businesses around the Republic.
Figures show that State bodies were among those who benefitted from €6.6 million in grants handed out under the same scheme, dubbed Digital that Delivers, by Fáilte Ireland.
Beneficiaries included forestry company Coillte, which earned €61 million profit in 2023. It received more than €120,000 in two grants of €105,000 and €15,600.
The State-owned business said this was to aid its Beyond the Trees Avondale treetop walk visitor attraction opened in Co Wicklow in 2022.
Funding from Fáilte Ireland included cash from the digital programme towards the development of the online booking system and website.
Coillte noted that Beyond the Trees Avondale was built in partnership with Fáilte Ireland and treetop walks specialist, EAK Ireland.
Fáilte Ireland said that the project was a “highly succesful” tourist attraction.
The National Museum of Ireland received two grants of more than €75,000, one for €51,795 and the second for €23,600.
The organisation said this was for “research, development, and delivery of new audio guides available in six languages for visitors to the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St”.
A statement pointed out that Fáilte Ireland approved the museum’s grants following an application process.
Core Optimisation said that its work on the project included “helping clients assess their digital maturity, website advisory and assessments, digital marketing projects, mentoring, data measurement and analytics”.
The company maintained that the results to date had been positive.
A statement pointed out that it had boosted revenues for those tourist businesses that took part while improving their staff’s digital skills.
The firm added that the project had already delivered “some outstanding results”.
The programme is not yet complete. Core Optimisation won a second tender for the work in March 2023 worth €25 million. It successfully bid for the first contract, worth €6 million, in May 2021.
Fáilte Ireland confirmed that it paid the consultancy, run by chief executive, Caroline Dunlea and chief operations officer, David Brett, €17.5 million between from 2021 to 2024.
Core Optimisation sub-contracted some work to CT Consults in Manchester and Dublin firm Razor Spire.
The State body employs 450 people. It argues that the Digital that Delivers programme is a large-scale technical programme requiring technical expertise.
It says it does not have enough staff with the skills to service the specific needs of 600 tourism businesses.
