Dún Laoghaire to host rink

Dublin City Council's loss is to become Dún Laoghaire's gain this Christmas as the company which ran Smithfield on Ice for four years has moved south, taking its ice rink with it.

Diffusion Event Management has operated the ice-skating event at the Smithfield Plaza every winter for the last four years. Earlier this year the city council put the event out to tender and chose a new company, a partnership of RSVP Event Management and Cousins Entertainment, to run the event for the next four years. The rink had been due to open later this month.

However, the council was informed by RSVP in recent weeks that the partnership had come to an end and although RSVP held the remaining interest in the company, it was not in a position to run the event on its own. The council announced last week that there would be no ice rink in Smithfield this year, for the first time in five years.

Meanwhile, after it emerged in about March or April of this year that Diffusion had lost the tender to run the Smithfield rink, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council saw its opportunity to hold its own ice-skating event. Diffusion was already managing several events for Dún Laoghaire, including the annual Festival of World Cultures.

Official sanction for the rink was given by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county councillors last night. The 10,824 sq ft ice rink will run from November 16th to January 13th in Blackrock Park, adjacent to Booterstown Dart Station and, unlike the open-air Smithfield rink, it will be in a covered marquee.

Labour Dublin city councillor Emer Costello said the loss of the ice rink was a terrible disappointment for Smithfield, particularly for local youth and school groups, who were allocated a number of free tickets each year.

"The local community is very upset, very disappointed and very annoyed."

The Plaza had been given over to RSVP until the end of January Ms Costello said and all Christmas decorations in the square associated with the rink would have been provided by that company.

"Now there's just going to be a big blank space there, in a prime area over the entire Christmas period. I am calling on the council to secure some event for the square as a matter of urgency. It would be lovely to have a Christmas market there."

A spokesman for the council said yesterday it had no other plans for Smithfield at present.

The Dún Laoghaire local authority is running its ice-skating event as a "non-commercial activity", senior executive officer with the council Richard Shakespeare said, with tickets priced at €8 for school children, €10 for under 12s, €13 for students, €16 for adults, and €44 for a family of four available from www.goskate.ie.

This website can also be accessed through www.smithfieldonice.ie. There will be discounts for holders of monthly bus and Dart tickets.

RSVP Event Management and Cousins Entertainment Ltd could not be contacted yesterday.