The new Cork School of Music, intended as a flagship for Cork's year as European City of Culture in 2005, may not be built in time because of what sources describe as "foot-dragging" by the Department of Finance.
Construction work on the €35 million public-private partnership (PPP) project was to have started last March. But despite having all-party support locally and backing from the Department of Education, it is still awaiting official sanction.
The building, designed by architects Murray O'Laoire, would provide 13,000 sq metres of space, including a 500-seat flexible auditorium, 55 individual tuition rooms each with a Steinway piano as well as audio-visual, dance and drama facilities.
"It was designed to a very high specification which would put the Cork school right up there with the best in the world," said one of those close to the project. "It would be a shame for Cork and for Ireland if it didn't go ahead at this stage." At present, the School of Music is dispersed among 17 buildings, having evacuated its original premises at Union Quay in the expectation that work was about to start on the new building. Some of the staff have their offices in attics.
Mr Joe Gavin, the Cork city manager, said yesterday the new School of Music formed a key element of Cork's successful bid to be European City of Culture in 2005. "It would be a major disappointment to us if it wasn't delivered." He said that not only would the new school be a very important addition to Cork's cultural infrastructure, the building itself would also make a huge contribution to urban renewal by removing a largely derelict site in the heart of the city. Mr Gavin said Cork City Council had been so anxious to facilitate the development that, when a third-party appeal was made against it, "we asked An Bord Pleanála to give it priority and got a favourable decision within four months".
The Cork School of Music was one of five pilot PPPs for new schools promoted by Mr Micheál Martin when he was minister for education. Four of those projects were for secondary schools, all of which are now completed or nearing completion.
The new school in Cork, which is a third level facility, was billed as "the jewel in the crown" of the PPP programme, under which the capital cost of new buildings is funded by a private-sector partner to whom the State pays an annual fee for 25 years. Jarvis Ireland Ltd, a subsidiary of Jarvis UK, which has experience of similar PPP arrangements in Britain, agreed to fund the School of Music.
Planning permission was granted last December and Sisk's, the contractors, were due to start on site in March.
"A lot of people were recruited on the assumption that it was about to proceed, so everyone involved is a bit fed up at this stage that there's been no official word," one source said. "Had it started last March, it would have been finished in March 2004." A Jarvis Ireland spokesman said construction would have to start in January or February at the latest to meet the City of Culture deadline and, even then, it would be "very tight".
A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said last night the project had been "referred back to the Department of Education for processing".