Oireachtas

Proposals for €70 million Children’s Science Centre are a ‘debacle’, PAC hears

TDs are told plans will ‘dwarf’ the controversy over spending on the Leinster House bike shelter

A cyclist uses a bike shelter at Leinster House, Dublin, which was installed at a cost of €336,000. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
A cyclist uses a bike shelter at Leinster House, Dublin, which was installed at a cost of €336,000. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Cormac McQuinn
Tue Oct 22 2024 - 17:17

Proposals for a National Children’s Science Centre are a “debacle” that will “dwarf” the controversy over spending on the Leinster House bike shelter and the security hut at Government Buildings if it goes ahead as planned, the Dáil’s public spending watchdog has heard.

Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon made the claim as representatives of the Office of Public Works (OPW) appeared at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday.

In June, the committee heard that the State has a “legal obligation” to deliver the long-planned science centre, set to cost an estimated €70 million, regardless of another science-themed facility, the Explorium, reopening in Dublin earlier this year.

The centre, due to be located on the campus of the National Concert Hall, was granted planning permission in April.

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The original plans to locate the centre at an OPW-owned site near Dublin’s Heuston Station faltered during the economic crash.

The legal obligation for the OPW to deliver the centre came as part of a 2013 arbitration process between the agency and the charity behind the plans.

Mr Cannon asked if a cost-benefit analysis has been done on the project.

OPW chairman John Conlon said the OPW still has to find a funder for the project and it has had some discussions with the Department of Tourism and Culture about the possibility of it stepping in to do this.

He said he believes a “value for money business case to underpin the whole project needs to be done” by the department that ultimately funds the project.

Mr Conlon added: “There will also have to be regard to the governance arrangement for the project moving on.

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“The OPW finds itself in a position where it’s contracted to build, but it’s not contracted to manage and it’s not contracted to be the funder of this, even though the legal position is that we have to build it, unfortunately.”

Separately, Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor said the spending on the €336,000 Leinster House bike shelter and €1.4 million Government Buildings security hut has led to public “outrage”.

Mr Conlon said the cost of the bike shelter was “was completely unacceptable” but defended spending on the security hut, citing mechanical and electronic work necessary on security advice.

Mr O’Connor asked who sought the development of the bike shelter.

OPW official Rosemary Collier said there was a request from a group of cycling Oireachtas members for covered bike parking facilities.

An October 2020 letter to Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl signed by 11 Oireachtas members – including Labour leader Ivana Bacik and PAC members Mr Cannon and Marc Ó Cathasaigh of the Green Party – was later provided to the committee.

Mr Conlon said the OPW did not make the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the body that runs Leinster House, aware of the cost.

He outlined how he recommended in his review of the project that “for elective projects going forward, the OPW needs to be very clear in making the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission aware of the cost”.

Mr Ó Cathasaigh, one of the signatories of the 2020 letter, said: “Asking for the installation of bike parking is a far cry from sanctioning the ludicrous level of spend we see here.”

He said a place to keep bikes dry for staff and elected members “is a fairly modest ask” and the spending on the bike shelter “is a world removed from that.”

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times