Ireland's finance minister Michael Noonan has unveiled a "special allocation" of funding towards The Gathering, a major tourism event which is scheduled to take place in 2013.
The support was made available as part of Noonan's Budget announcement, with the event to be a year-long celebration to be driven by Irish arts, sports and community groups.
Irish tourism minister Leo Varadkar said: "[The Gathering] will be the biggest ever tourism event held in Ireland. We aim to attract more than 320,000 people to Ireland that year."
