A project to deliver a children's science museum in Dublin city centre is unable to proceed unless a department or State agency steps in to cover the remaining costs, a Fine Gael TD and member of the Public Accounts Committee has said.
The project has been in the works since the 1990s and, in 2003, the Office of Public Works (OPW) made an agreement with the charity promoting the science centre project, Irish Children’s Museum Limited, to build a "world-class children’s science museum" in Ireland.
In a statement, the OPW told RTÉ News today that while it accepted the arbitration that it must deliver the building, it said there was nobody to fund it.
Fine Gael TD for Dublin Bay South and member of PAC James Geoghegan said the project demonstrates "monumental and shambolic governance failings".
He added that it is "probably some of the worst governance failings" that he has seen in his short time as a TD and on the PAC.
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Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Mr Geoghegan said: "I called the process that led to where we are at a shambles… at the heart of all of this is an agreement that the OPW entered into over a decade ago with the National Children’s Science Centre."
He said the charity has the laudable goal of creating the first children’s science museum in the city centre at Earlsfort Terrace beside the Concert Hall.
"The problem is that the open-ended agreement that then the OPW entered into has binded the State into an enormous liability which it can’t escape from," he said.
He added that this is unless a line department indicates that they see merit in the National Children’s Science Centre being located where it is located and "that they think there is a business case for it" and they think there is "value for money".
Mr Geoghegan said as matters stand, the new chair of the OPW John Conlon, is "left carrying the baby with nobody telling him if it is going to be funded".
The science charity has said that they can raise up to €25m from philanthropy towards funding the overall cost of the project.
However, Mr Geoghegan said it needs to be established if there is a "viable opportunity" from a State Department or State Agency that in addition to the philanthropic money could lead to the science centre going forward.
Mr Geoghegan said the PAC has discussed inviting in the Board of the National Children’s Science Centre.
However, he said: "There isn’t a great relationship between the State and the charity where legal strategies have been deployed."
"If we bring more transparency to this issue, we might arrive at a situation where there is an outcome that doesn’t result in tens of millions in damages awarded being given by the State or this ceaseless or endless process of arbitration that might end up in the courts," he said.
He said the more than 5,000 square metre space is "effectively left unused".
"In the absence to a finality to this, we have a vacant building in the heart of Dublin city centre, we have a laudable idea that is not actually going to deliver on a National Children’s Science Centre and we have got mounting and rising legal costs to the taxpayer.
"That is why I think having the board before the Public Accounts Committee to deliberate and see is there a way forward here that could arrive at a more consensual outcome," Mr Geoghegan said.
"It is so important that we learn the lessons from this… we need to bring a finality to this."
