Plans for a national science centre, potentially costing more than €70m, are "stuck" due to a lack of Government engagement, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is currently planning to build a 9,580sq/m National Children's Science Centre at the northern wing of the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin 2.
Plans for the development were first proposed in 2003, when the OPW reached an agreement with the Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML) to construct the building.
According to a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), these plans were shelved in 2008 following the financial crash.
In 2013, a replacement agreement for the lease committing the OPW to provide the building was entered into.
In May 2024, the OPW estimated the cost of delivering the project to be more than €70m, based on a costing prepared by external advisors.
The C&AG Seamus McCarthy told PAC this morning that his report found that the agreement between the OPW and ICML was a premature commitment of significant, unquantified taxpayer resources.
ICML CEO Barbara Galavan told politicians today that it had been "difficult" to begin dialogue with the Government to advance the plans.
The PAC was told that no Government department was willing to be a sponsoring body for the project, which Ms Galavan agreed has led to the delay in the project progressing.
She did not disagree with a suggestion from Fianna Fáil TD Seamus McGrath that she was being "stonewalled" by the Government.
Ms Galavan added that the ICML has committed to raising €25m for the fit out of the centre.
OPW Chairman John Conlon told the committee that the construction of the building was not possible without State funding.
He told Mr McGrath that the OPW planned to put out a tender for the project by year end, with an arbitration last year determining that the body was legally bound to build the centre by the end of 2029.
Mr Conlon estimated that the cost of the project so far was more than €5m in taxpayers' money.
Fine Gael TD Joe Neville said this had been spent on "absolutely nothing".
Labour TD Eoghan Kenny said the situation was an "absolute shambles" and that it was a "shocking indictment" that a legal obligation was made to construct the building but that it still was not done.
Under the plans, the new museum would include three floors of interactive exhibits, a 122-seat planetarium, a theatre, and fully-equipped science laboratory spaces.
