The organiser of Miss Ireland has slammed suggestions that the future of the long-running beauty contest has been crippled by the recession.

There has been much speculation that the popular pageant has run into financial difficulties given the lengthy delays in organising the heats for this year's annual showdown, which costs an estimated €80,000 to stage.

Tongues were wagging that its future hangs in the balance amid claims that approaches were made to Cork-based society magazine RSVP to get financially involved with the event for the first time.

Demise

But allegations of the contest's demise have been hotly denied by Miss Ireland boss Krishna Naidoo, who told the Diary that the reports that the event has ran into debt were "not true".

He has insisted there is no fear of the contest following the same fate as this year's Miss Great Britain event, which was cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.

Asked where he thought the rumours of money troubles had come from, he thought it was because so many businesses have been so badly hit by the credit crunch.

"Maybe it's because no details had been released about the contest, but it's definitely going ahead," he said. "We are starting to release details of the heats, which are coming up in May."

Krishna took over organising the competition last year, when Miss Ireland went head-to-head with the inaugural Miss Universe Ireland contest, which is affiliated with Assets Model Agency.

But, now it seems that bridges have been mended with Assets, after Krishna confirmed that he contacted it to get involved in this year's event.

"I did ring them, along with all the major agencies, to let them know the heats were coming up if they wanted to put some girls forward for it, but I never asked Assets to sponsor the contest," he said.

"What happened last year is that we didn't want to link ourselves solely with one particular agency, so it was open to everyone, and it's the same format this year."

He also confirmed he was in negotiations with RSVP about providing some of the media coverage for the various heats.

When asked about the delay in running the national finals for this year's competition, Krishna said there was nothing unusual in them stalling the contest until everything was organised.

"Last year, I launched the competition in April -- it's a similar situation again," he explained. "We're going to have 36 girls again, and we're looking at having the final sometime in late July."

Delighted

He added how he was delighted with the performance of last year's winner, Sinead Noonan, who's now with Compton Model Agency and revealed how she hopes to also start her acting career shortly.

Meanwhile, the hunt is also under way to find this year's Miss Universe Ireland, with several competition heats also taken place.

Last year saw Dublin beauty Lynn Kelly emerge as the inaugural winner and she'll hand over her crown at a ceremony in June.