Officials from the Office of Public Works told the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that the proposed National Children’s Science Centre is "stuck".
The project, which has been under development since 2003, has encountered many hurdles over the past 23 years.
Under an arbitration agreement reached in 2013, the OPW committed to build a children’s science centre at the northern wing of the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace.
While the most recent planning permission was granted in 2024, no construction has started.
Public affairs correspondent with the Irish Times, Martin Wall, told RTÉ's Behind the Story that no department seems to want to take the project on.
"Initially there seemed to be enthusiasm among certain government departments that they would actually run this – what’s called in technical terms, 'the sponsoring department’.
"The OPW build things, they’re not an operation department the way the Department of Education would be".
Mr Wall said the OPW had expected someone else "to come along and pick up the ball".
"The issue is [that] nobody seems to want it."
He believes the ongoing running costs could be to blame.
"There’s no business case, there’s no projections of revenue, there’s no projections of cost and there’s no projections of the difference," he said.
Mr Wall joined Fran and Laura to outline the history of the project and what needs to happen to move the project forward.
Elsewhere, a UK Supreme Court ruling this week has reignited a debate around oat milk. Swedish oat drink company Oatly lost a long-running court battle there over whether the word ‘milk’ could be used to describe oat-based products.
The issue is still up for debate among European Union member states.
Dr Ciarán O’Carroll, a lecturer in enterprise and Sustainability at TU Dublin, told the podcast he does not understand the confusion.
"The packaging is fundamentally exactly the same, in the same part of the store – I don’t even read what’s on it," he said.
"I just know from the colour, the brand cues and the marketing around it."
Dr O’Carroll said he believes there are more important issues to focus on.
"The EU should be focusing not on whether it is a milk or a juice, but financial packages for farmers to make sure they can continue in their livelihood as the cost of milk continues to decline because of over-production".
You can listen to Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
