A commitment by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to build a children's science museum "exposed the Exchequer to unnecessary risk", according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG).
In 2003 the OPW entered a lease agreement with the charity promoting the science centre project, Irish Children's Museum Limited (ICML), to build a national science centre.
The planned location was an OPW-owned site at Kilmainham, near Heuston railway station in Dublin.
However, due to the financial crisis and ensuing property crash the development at the so-called 'Heuston Gate' site never went ahead.
In its 2024 report the State's spending watchdog said the OPW "did not apply the safeguards designed to ensure that public funds are used effectively and efficiently in the development of the science centre project".
It also found "a lack of transparency surrounding the selection process".
"There is no evidence that the proposal from ICML, or other proposals received, were subject to a formal evaluation, and there is no clear evidence that a competitive process was conducted."
The C&AG also noted inadequate governance on the project.
It said "no formal decision has been identified regarding the appointment of a sponsoring agency, and this remains unresolved to date.
"This lack of formal governance arrangements has exposed the Exchequer to unnecessary risk, and there is a lack of clarity as to what the project is expected to achieve, and how it is to be funded," it said.
"Absent a formal public sector sponsor, this project should not have proceeded to a significant formal commitment of public resources," it added.
The watchdog said the OPW "should not have entered a formal commitment in respect of the science centre.
"It also did not have the authority to agree to the lease without a specific Department of Finance sanction for the proposal."
In its findings, the C&AG also said legal advice "indicated that the OPW’s obligation under the agreement for lease was legally binding and that there was a likelihood of a liability to pay damages to ICML should the agreement be breached".
"The potential damages were estimated to range from €250,000 (reflecting the amount contributed from private donations) to €30m. The latter figure was equivalent to the estimated potential cost (in 2013) of constructing the building at the scale to which the OPW had by then agreed," it stated.
In 2013, a new agreement was reached between the OPW and ICML, which provided for a building on an OPW-owned site at Earlsfort Terrace, adjacent to the National Concert Hall, to accommodate the science centre.
Commenting on the 2013 arrangement, the C&AG said the OPW "did not conduct an appraisal of the provision of the site, nor an assessment of the cost of relocating the project to Earlsfort Terrace, prior to committing to it as part of the settlement agreement".
It also said the State has incurred costs of "over €4.27m on the science centre project to date," which "does not include the costs of staff and management resources across a number of government bodies".
Meanwhile, the spending watchdog notes a significant cost overrun on the project, with the estimated cost of the development rising from €13m in 2014 to more than €70m in 2024.
