The newly-elected mayor of Killarney, Fianna Fáil Cllr Brian O'Leary, has criticised the high level of fees already paid to consultants on the proposed €12 million Killarney Sports and Leisure Complex.
Killarney Town Council has paid about €1.2 million for the project before it has even got off the ground, "enough to employ an architect and a secretary for 10 years" the mayor said.
The final decision for a swimming pool and sports complex will rest with the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, town councillors have been told. Mr O'Donoghue has signalled his support for the project, saying it was a much-needed facility for tourists and locals.
The council hopes for maximum grant aid of more than €6 million from the Minister's Department and from National Lottery funding. The rest will be raised by the sale of property, a loan and other fund-raising arrangements.
Documents on the project note the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism had approved architectural and engineering scale fees of 13.5 per cent of the overall cost of the project.
Mr O'Leary said such high fee scales were "an abuse of public money".
"There are plenty of architects and engineers who would jump at half of that fee," he said. There was no way the private sector would pay out that kind of money to its consultants, he added.
Ms Noreen O'Connor, project manager, said this was the scale of fees public bodies were tied into with Irish architects and engineering organisations and they could not negotiate a flat rate. These 13.5 per cent rates were the kind of fees they had to pay the consultants appointed to projects. This was known at the tendering stage.