Sean McKeown, the director of Fota Wildlife Park made the following comments in response to the confirmation from the Government that Fota Wildlife Park can reopen on the 26th April 2021;

We are absolutely delighted to hear that zoos and heritage parks and of course Fota Wildlife Park can reopen from the 26th April. However, we are disappointed that we were not able to open at an earlier date given that we are a 100-acre outdoor attraction with the ability to strictly limit numbers, with our pre-booking online system, we are well set up to manage the Park during the Covid pandemic as we have shown in the past year when we were open from the May 20th 2020 to January 8th 2021. Our new visiting protocols will have no indoor areas open to the public and the layout is organised as a one-way directional walking route.

He continued: As a conservation charity, 95% of our operating income comes from our visitors in gate receipts, annual pass sales and gift shop revenues so the last few months have been very worrying. Tonight, we are all thrilled in Fota Wildlife Park to have an opening date and a plan in sight for the full reopening of the Wildlife Park by July and the possibility of many staycation visitors coming to the Park. Also, a very special word of thanks must go out to the amazing public generosity and messages of support in response to the recent media interviews. We are extremely grateful to all of those who donated via the website and pledged support through their own fundraising initiatives.

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