Board to meet today over aquatic centre

The board of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development (CSID) is to meet today to discuss the awarding of the contract for the national aquatic centre to Waterworld UK.

The meeting is being held at the request of the Minister for Tourism and Sport, Dr McDaid, who told the Dáil last night that a number of aspects of the handling of the matter needed urgent review.

He expressed regret he had not been told it was a shelf company.

"I will be asking for a full report on the outcome of the board's review immediately after the meeting, before deciding on the further necessary steps which I will need to take in completing the report for the Government which my Cabinet colleagues asked for today." Earlier, Dr McDaid said that as far as EU procurement law was concerned, every dormant and shelf company had a right to make an application for a contact.

"EU procurement law states that one must take on board the application of the shelf and the dormant company." He added that despite the fact that the contract had to be accepted and taken on board, he regretted, nonetheless, he was not informed it was a shelf company.

Replying to a series of special notice questions, Dr McDaid said there had been no "recklessness" or "negligence" on the part of anybody involved. From memory, he said, the cost of the winning contract was £48 million, while the next one was about £60 million and the third one was "a whopping £71 million." The bid was, by far, the best, he added.

Mr Pat Rabbitte (Labour, Dublin South West) said Dr McDaid was now asking the kind of elementary question any half-vigilant Minister would have asked when the contract was authorised. "Is the Minister seriously telling this House that the only thing wrong is the manner of the information coming into the possession of The Irish Times?" Dr McDaid said there was nothing illegal in any shelf company putting forward applications for EU contracts.

"As a matter of fact, the EU procurement law insists that all applications from shelf companies, dormant or otherwise, have to be assessed on their financial viability."

Dr McDaid said that an assessment process, under the auspices of CSID, shortlisted five consortiums which were invited to submit outline bids on the basis of which three were selected to proceed to detailed negotiation stage.

Panels including members of CSID, the Office of Public Works, the Irish Sports Council, Fingal County Council, the National Coaching and Training Centre, Special Olympics 2003 and an international leisure and sports expert assessed the bids.

Expert legal advice was also provided by McCann FitzGerald Solicitors and PricewaterhouseCoopers also provided a report of the bidding consortium.

An assessment panel recommended to the board of CSID that the Waterworld-Rohcon bid, which was also the lowest cost proposal submitted by some £15 million, merited overall top ranking for the award of the contract for the project.

The Government, on the basis of the board's recommendation, agreed in December that CSID sign heads of agreement with the Waterworld consortium.