Irish PM disappointed over Dublin-based web summit's move to Lisbon

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Wednesday he was very disappointed to hear the annual Dublin web summit would be moved to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon as from next year.

Kenny said he had hoped the annual technology event would come back to Ireland again in the future.

The Irish prime minister said the authorities would have to look at the question of how they needed to improve for future events.

On Wednesday, Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of the web summit, made the announcement the 2016 summit would be shifted to Lisbon.

Cosgrave said the summit would be held in Lisbon for at least the next three years.

The annual summit was launched in 2010 with just 400 attendees in Dublin. But in 2014, the summit grew to 22,000 attendees.

"This is a big move for us, to leave Dublin after five years. The first event was small, with just 400 attendees. Since then, the web summit has grown into the most important gathering of startups on the planet," he said.

Cosgrave said attendance at the 2015 summit was expected to rise to 30,000 people.

"This November, we're expecting 30,000 attendees to descend upon Dublin and we estimate that more than 50,000 attendees will come to our events over a 12-month period," he said.

But Cosgrave said his company's headquarters would remain in Dublin. "We employ 130 people here and plan to continue growing fast," he said.

"We are an Irish company. Our roots are Irish. Our first attendees were all Irish. It was those first attendees who became our greatest champions, spreading the word of the web summit far and wide. We couldn't have gotten here without them," he said.

"It has not been an easy decision to move the web summit from its Irish home. We are going because we want to take the next step on our journey to international growth," he added. Enditem