Pie in the sky figures is how a driver for the upcoming Irish Open has described the sums of money being sought for accommodation locally.
There are only weeks to go now to the big golf tournament in Mount Juliet and several hundred properties in and around Co Kilkenny are being advertised on the site ‘accommodation for the event dot com’
There’s a whole range of homes available and some of them are being offered for tens of thousands of euro.
But Eamonn Ryan who was looking for accommodation for 30 drivers for the big tournament in Mount Juliet says he believes those prices are just not realistic:
“The likes of ourselves, we’re there for a week driving, people working on course, they’re there for a full week, maybe 10 to 12 days,” said Eamonn.
“We can’t afford to fork out figures of €20,000 or €30,000 for a week, we don’t get paid that money so it’s definitely not achievable and it won’t be achievable”.
“Even coming down from Donegal to watch the Irish open, they’ll come down and perhaps the Friday and get a bed and breakfast inside in Kilkenny or somewhere, watch the golf on Friday, Saturday and head home”.
“They don’t want a house for a week”.