The British government's decision to reject Legacy's £125 million sterling (€202 million) offer for the Millennium Dome site was political, said Mr Richard Barrett, director of Treasury Holdings. The Legacy consortium was 85 per cent owned by Irish company Treasury Holdings.

"That decision had nothing to do with money or the suitability of the bid - it was politics," said Mr Barrett after the Foresight business breakfast in Trinity College. "It's water under the bridge but, if the British general election didn't occur when it occurred, that wouldn't have happened."

Mr Barrett said a similar situation would not have arisen in Ireland. "When you're declared a preferred bidder, if you do all the things you're supposed to do, you normally progress to get the property. That's not the case in England." He also said the building of a national conference centre at Spencer Dock in Dublin depended on Government finances. It had been reported that Spencer Dock Development Company, of which Treasury Holdings is a part, planned to build a scaled-down conference centre on the 23-acre site, which would have put into question Government plans to build a centre on the site.

"There's only a need of one large conference centre . . . and it should be some sort of flagship building. But the Exchequer is not as well off as it was and probably the building will have to be scaled down," he said. The slowing economy had hit margins in the property business and at Treasury, Mr Barrett said. "Property is a function of economics, so if the economy is suffering, so is the property market," he said. "Ireland is in better shape than almost any other world economy, so there are still things happening here. We are still signing tenants.