Council defends use of luxury hotel for marine conference

Donegal County Council has defended its use of the Solis Lough Eske Hotel outside Donegal Town for the Malin Waters conference which took place on Wednesday of this week.
A number of questions were raised about the conference by a delegate in today’s Donegal News, including the suitability of the venue.
However, Donegal County Council it was happy to host the conference as the lead authority in the initiative, and the hotel was chopsen in line with EU Procurement requirements.
In a statement, the council says it has worked with various hotels in all parts of the county over the years in respect of various conferences and events, and will continue to do so in the future in order to develop and promote the county’s tourism industry.
The council says none of its staff or members stayed in the Solis Lough Eske Hotel, and while the paper reports that Donegal County Council booked 22 rooms, the statement says the council paid accomodation costs for four international speakers and a further 17 rooms were booked by attendees at the conference who covered their own costs.
More people stayed in other hotels in the area, visited restaurants and had a positive economic impact during their attendance at the event.
The council says it will continue to work in collaboration with all 20 transnational project partners on the SailWest Initiative so as to continue to realise the potential of the marine tourism sector as a driver for economic growth in this region.
Questions raised by the paper about a planned 1.6 million euro marina development near Culdaff are not addressed in this afternoon’s statement.