The council make approximately €1 million a year from Marlay Park concert income. I asked the Parks department how Marlay Park concert income is spent. This money is earmarked for investment into the park and there’s a significant amount of projects that need investment.
With no concert income in 2020 and 2021, progress stalled but more works will begin in 2025 with the money from the past few years. The really popular Samhain event every Hallowe’en is also subsidised by the concerts, meaning low ticket prices for families.
I want Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to publish the details of how much was invested in each project in Marlay Park each year, for full transparency on where our public money goes.
Below is the answer I received:
The new Marlay Park woodland playground is also funded by this income and opened in December 2024 and is really popular with families in the area now.
Marlay Park also got €2 million in funding from our local TD, Minister Catherine Martin, for a multi-sports complex, including all weather pitches, a new cricket pitch, padel tennis courts and a GAA skills wall.
The council will soon switch the EV chargers in Marlay Park back on too, read more on it here.
There’s more detail on the projects planned in Marlay Park here. Despite delays to all the projects I’m continuing to keep the pressure on the council to prioritise these as we need much more investment in community facilities in the Ballinteer/Rathfarnham area.
