Ireland

Teahon and OPW chief disagree on just how Campus Stadium management was decided

A question on why the Office of Public Works was not involved in managing the Campus Stadium project from the outset sparked …

By Christine Newman
Fri Apr 05 2002 - 01:00

A question on why the Office of Public Works was not involved in managing the Campus Stadium project from the outset sparked an argument between the OPW chairman, Mr Barry Murphy, and Mr Paddy Teahon, former executive chairman of CSID.

At the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, Mr Pádraic McCormack TD (FG) asked what it was that decided that the OPW was not to be involved at the start.

Mr Teahon said he thought the meeting chaired by the Minister for Finance answered the question. The Minister had said a judgment had to be made by the OPW on the issue. In other words, was the OPW satisfied that its people would report to the company and specifically to him (Mr Teahon) as executive chair.

He said Mr Murphy and the Minister decided that they did not want to proceed on that basis and that the OPW would provide technical services for the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, in connection with the project.

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Mr Teahon said it was decided that CSID Ltd would proceed by way of normal tender to recruit a company to provide management services.

At this point, Mr Murphy interjected and said: "I don't want to make an argument on this but that's simply not the case. We were prepared to work for CSID providing we had formal legal agreement with them. We couldn't get it and we didn't work for them."

Mr Teahon then replied: "Mr chairman, equally I do not want to enter into a dispute with Barry Murphy but what he says is simply untrue and if anybody wants to clarify what the situation is, why not ask the person who chaired the meeting which reached the agreement, the Minister for Finance."

Mr Conor Lenihan TD (FF) asked if Mr Sean Benton of the OPW would be a full-time interim chief executive at CSID and not part-time. There had been a bru-ha-ha about taxpayers' money.

Mr Murphy said that had not been decided. If a full-time job was needed, the company would get it. They would provide the full service that was required. Mr Benton had 431 different projects and this would be his 432nd. The next board meeting would be on April 18th, Mr Murphy said.