The national conference centre proposed for Spencer Dock in Dublin is not a financially viable project, an economist told a planning appeal hearing yesterday.
Mr Colm McCarthy said the 51-acre commercial and residential development would cost the Exchequer and Dublin Corporation £525 million over 111/2 years.
This figure would include grants and a "rich menu" of tax breaks and rates allowances, including an initial State grant of £26 million for the 2,000-seat conference centre which anchors the 26-building development.
Mr McCarthy, from DKM Economic Consultants, was making a submission on behalf of Mr Dermot Desmond and the IFSC South Block, one of eight parties appealing Dublin Corporation's decision to grant partial planning permission for the scheme last August.
The developers, a consortium of Spencer Dock International Conference Centre Ltd, Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd and CIE, are also appealing the decision.
Mr McCarthy said the "full set of grants and tax breaks being sought for the entire development confers benefits on the project promoters which greatly exceed the costs they will have to incur on the loss-making conference centre. The State is paying for the project in full, and more."
He said the report analysing the economics of the conference centre project was being withheld from An Bord Pleanala and the public. The report was commissioned for the Government by Bord Failte, prepared by Peter Bacon and Associates, and completed in mid-1998. Mr McCarthy said requests for the report from Bord Failte, a Government Department and the EU Commission had failed. A application under the Freedom of Information Act was being considered, he said.
Mr McCarthy was one of several experts who made submissions yesterday on behalf of Mr Desmond and the IFSC South Block.