By Gordon Deegan

Organisers of the 2020 National Ploughing Championships recorded a pre-tax loss last year of €656,240 after the event’s cancellation due to Covid-19.

The National Ploughing Association of Ireland (NPAI) recorded the loss after revenues plunged by 97% or €5.45 million to €152,821.

The NPAI’s costs for the 12 months to the end of January this year total €809,061.

In 2019, the Ploughing Association recorded revenues of €5.6 million after 297,000 people attended the 88th National Ploughing Championships at Ballintrane, Fenagh, Co. Carlow.

However, with no event last year the Ploughing Championships’s revenues were only 3% of what the Association would record in a strong year and the association is facing a similar revenue hit this year, with the cancellation of the crowd-pulling 2021 event.

The pre-tax loss of €656,240 in the 12 months to the end of January this year is a 59% increase on the €413,396 pre-tax loss recorded in the prior year.

The accounts show that the combined pre-tax loss for 2020, 2019 and 2018 events total €1.56 million.

Higher costs contributed to the €413,396 loss for 2019 while in 2018, the event’s losses of €494,370 arose after the event at Tullamore was blown off course by Storm Ali.

Revenues for 2018 totalled €4.97 million.

Commenting on last year’s financial performance, assistant managing director of the National Ploughing Association, Anna Marie McHugh said on Sunday: “It is what it is. We made the losses because the event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19.”

She added that the losses would have ran into the millions if the association had delayed the decision to cancel until later in the year.

The event was cancelled in May as was the 2021 event planned for this September.

She stated: “We are quite satisfied that we kept the losses to what they were given the circumstances.”

The balance sheet of the association remains strong with accumulated profits of €12.3 million at the end of January this year in spite of the three years of losses.

McHugh stated: “We are not at any risk. That is an important thing to say. We are a national voluntary organisation and we have money in the bank for a rainy day and here we are.”

She added: “The association is very strong and solid financially. There will be nothing compromised for the 2022 event. We have our cushion.”

McHugh stated: “I don’t think we have made any profit since 2016 or 2017 but have had the biggest events ever since then.”

McHugh stated that the ‘Ploughing’ not being entitled to any significant State Covid-19 event grant was “a big kick – a big hurt”.

She said as a result of the pandemic “we got a county council grant of €8,000 – two batches of €4,000 – but we got no government grant as we were not entitled to any event grants”.

“We are not going to whinge – it is what it is,” she added.

McHugh confirmed that the ploughing company was able to avail of the Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The firm’s cash pile last year decreased from €2.18 million to €1.77 million and its financial assets totalled €9.84 million.

The government and state agencies represent a large part of the national ploughing revenues.

In 2019, a total of €1.3 million on staff, stalls and marquees at the National Ploughing Championships was spent by government departments and state agencies.