The scale of the dividend for the west of Ireland from the £22.4-million Greg Norman-designed Doonbeg golf resort was spelled out yesterday by Shannon Development - an annual spend of £11 million in the region.
The acting chief executive of Shannon Development, Mr Kevin Thompstone, said: "Ensuring improved regional tourism balance is an ongoing critical issue being addressed by us, and Doonbeg golf resort will attract discerning tourists and will add to the quality of the tourism product in Clare and the Shannon region."
Mr Thompstone was speaking ahead of next month's marketing launch for international membership of the west Clare course, where aspiring members will have to pay £31,500 for the privilege of joining and actual members will pay annual dues of about £1,600. For locals there will be preferential membership as part of a special deal with the community.
Ms Patricia Dillon of Doonbeg Community Development said 150 members drawn from Doonbeg and the wider west Clare area would be eligible to avail of the special rate. She said rates would compare with those at Lahinch and Ballybunion.
Work on the course is almost complete. The official opening will be next April. Already, several golfers have played the links course by invitation. Last month, its designer, Greg Norman, played it prior to the British Open.
Norman, twice Open champion, has visited as many as nine times to inspect the development, which he described as "a pet project of mine, just because of the uniqueness of where it is".
The developers of the course, Irish National Golf Club, plan to build a four-star, 90-room hotel nearby and to complete it by 2004.
Shannon Development believes that besides the above-mentioned £11 million the project can generate as much again in indirect revenue in west Clare, with corresponding job-creation. The company said that, when complete, the development will provide a minimum of 75 full-time and 20 part-time jobs.
Meanwhile, local landowners seeking to capitalise on the project have lodged a huge number of planning applications with Clare County Council. The council has responded, however, with a general freeze on development pending the adoption of a Local Area Development Plan.
The process of drawing up the plan began 18 months ago, but became bogged down in arguments between the council and residents, who stood to gain substantially from relaxed restrictions on building.
A meeting last week, however, produced a breakthrough, and the council expects to send a final version of the plan to the community in the coming weeks.
The senior executive planner with the council, Mr Brendan McGrath, said: "Where there are commercial forces at work, it makes it difficult to get a community consensus, and it hasn't been an easy context in which to work."