In Reply to: Re: Funding Appeal Update posted by Ronan Johnson on September 28, 2006 at 15:10:24:

It doesn't cost 8000 per year to run the website. But we do require roughly 8000 euro right now to survive into 2007 - to pay existing outstanding bills - hosting in particular, accountancy and CRO charges etc., plus ideally we want to have a small float towards next year's hosting charges so that we are not into a continuous cycle of fund-raising to prevent the site closing down. There are a number of extraordinary items this year, as they say in the best accountancy circles. Closing down of the limited company is expensive. In an average year the accountancy costs have amounted to a major fraction of the hosting costs which obviously are the main expense each year. Ironically to cease trading is itself a pretty expensive process - even the advert that is required in a national paper will probably run to 500-600 euro - the CRO specify exactly how many column inches it has to be etc. In a normal year post-limited company status and without having to pay out major accountancy fees we will get by on a much smaller amount and ideally the advertising will cover it. The sites' bandwidth and server farm charges are, however, a lot more than your typical website due to the volume of traffic we generate - so it will always be a relatively hefty amount each year. The accounts for Castlebar Server Project Ltd (the company that is being closed down) have been published in the CRO on a regular basis and the final accounts will be published once we can afford to shut it down and pay the CRO, national press and accountants to complete the job. In the meantime we also have to pay hosting fees for 2006. Our hosting company is very understanding but we are in an embarrassing situation at present. As we indicated earlier - see thread below the site will simply cease to exist if we do not raise enough in advertising and email sales to cover our current requirements of about 8k. We could struggle on with a little less but 8k is the target to make it into 2007 with a little to spare. In a normal year perhaps half that would be sufficient to keep the site going.

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