A final decision has not been taken on whether the proposed National Biological Records Centre is to be located at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said yesterday.
He strongly rejected suggestions he had been involved in the decision by the Heritage Council to recommend the centre for Waterford. Mr Cullen, a TD for Waterford, rejected suggestions there was anything controversial about locating the centre at the Waterford Institute, despite the fact that a member of the Heritage Council's wildlife committee, Mr Des Crofton, has resigned in protest over the selection process.
"We've had one or two people trying to fan flames on an issue where they are completely wrong. This issue has been around for about three years, as I understand it, and the Heritage Council were very anxious to put forward a programme for a biological records centre," said Mr Cullen. He said he left it to the Heritage Council to decide where the centre was to be located and they had considered factors such as the decentralisation of the Department of the Environment.
"The Heritage Council itself is in Kilkenny and I believe they've been discussing this [a site for the centre] with Waterford Institute of Technology, which I'm happy to say is a world-class institute. If the Heritage Council see fit that it should be in Waterford, then as a Waterford man, of course I'd be delighted," said Mr Cullen.
Earlier the Labour Party chief whip, Mr Emmet Stagg, accused Mr Cullen of placing undue pressure on the Heritage Council and of bypassing established procurement procedures.
Said Mr Stagg: "I have absolutely no objection to the location of the Biological Records Centre in Waterford IT, provided that it is the most appropriate location and provided that other academic institutions were given an opportunity to make their case. This does not appear to have been the situation.
"It appears that from the beginning Minister Cullen was determined that the centre would be located in this constituency and that no attempt was made to assess other potential locations. It is also extraordinary that standard procurement procedures that would normally involve requests for tenders were not used at all," he said.
Mr Cullen rejected Mr Stagg's comments and said the Heritage Council had followed procedure. He also rejected a claim by Mr Crofton that an official from his Department had rung the Heritage Council and told them that the Minister had to be protected from adverse publicity over the decision to go to WIT.
"I find that [the claim about the call] completely bizarre. I don't know who would have made a phonecall purporting to be on my behalf. I find it very strange. I don't see why I have to be protected. I'm well able to make my own decisions and the Heritage Council are well able to make theirs," he said.
Questioned about a discrepancy between a statement issued by his Department which said that TCD, UCD and UCG had also expressed an interest in hosting the biological records centre, and comments by Heritage Council chief executive Mr Michael Starrett that no other institutes had made approaches, Mr Cullen said that was a matter for the institutes.
"Well, I don't know. I haven't been dealing with this issue directly - this is an issue that comes to me at the end of the day for decision. I haven't read the file in total. If other institutes made their interest known, I'm sure they did, and if they didn't, they didn't," he commented.
