Organisers of the National Ploughing Championships are to increase ticket prices by €5 for the 2026 event as the firm behind the 'Ploughing' recorded a loss last year due to rising costs.
National Ploughing Association of Ireland (NPAI) Assistant Managing Director, Anna Marie McHugh confirmed the €5 ticket price increase today as new accounts show that the National Ploughing Association of Ireland recorded post tax losses of €150,926 in the 12 months to the end of January 2025.
The firm recorded the post tax loss as revenues decreased by 3pc from €6.14m to €5.961m while its costs totalled €6.679m showing an operational loss of €718,000.
However, the firm's losses were reduced to €64,443 after it recorded a €418,632 gain on its investments and €234,657 in profit on the disposal of investments.
A corporation tax charge of €86,483 resulted in the post tax loss of €150,926.
Asked to comment on the financial performance, Ms McHugh said that the losses arise as "the costs of running the event exceed the profits – that’s just the reality of things".
Ms McHugh said: "Fortunately we are a non profit association and we have been doing okay on our investments so one is balancing out the other but I would be concerned about the events industry if costs keep escalating at the rate they have been since Covid."
On the rising costs facing the event, Ms McHugh said that contractors "are telling us that with the minimum wage increase again and the introduction of the pension policy that will impact pricing".
A total of 225,00 people attended this year’s ‘Ploughing’ at Screggan, Tullamore and this was a 8% decrease on the 244,000 which attended the 2024 event at Ratheniska, Co Laois.
Screggan will host the 2026 event and Ms McHugh said: "The NPA is a National Voluntary Association running probably the biggest event in the country at a cost of over €7m annually with no government financial support so that’s a pretty significant achievement when you consider that the estimated Economic Impact of any one National Ploughing Championships is over €50m".
At the end of January this year, the Ploughing firm was sitting on accumulated funds of €11.78m while cash funds reduced from €3.3m to €1.76m.
The value of the company’s financial assets increased from €8.36m to €9.7m.
Ms McHugh said: "Looking forward, the NPA are very fortunate to have accumulated enough reserves to ensure the financial security of the Championships for many years to come, we hope.
She added: "However I would appendix that by saying that the price of everything in the events industry has increased year on year since Covid and that has to level out for our sector to survive but already we have been told that there will be price increases again in 2026 from many of our service providers."
The €5 price increase will result in an adult ticket price of €30 for tickets bought in advance while adult tickets at the gate will be €35 after they cost €30 this year.
Numbers employed decreased from 19 to 16.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
