Labour seeks answers on Abbotstown leaks

The Labour Party is to table a Dáil motion this morning seeking answers from the Government over the increasing problems at the…

The Labour Party is to table a Dáil motion this morning seeking answers from the Government over the increasing problems at the National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown.

It was reported this morning that the centre, which was built at a cost of €62 million, is leaking millions of litres of water every month through cracks in the floor of an underground plant room.

The centre was also closed for several months earlier this year after the roof was damaged in a storm.

The centre’s operating company, Dublin Waterworld Ltd, is fighting a High Court action by Campus Stadium Ireland Development (CSID), which is seeking to remove it as operator.

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Labour’s Joan Burton today said there were serious questions surrounding the quality of the construction of the centre.

"This facility is only two years in operation and was built entirely through taxpayers' money but to date Ministers have refused time and again to answer questions in the Dáil or to release the contents of various engineering reports commissioned at public expense into the construction defects that have now become apparent.

"I want all technical reports already available to the Government to be published in full immediately and I want the FF chair of the relevant Dáil committee to arrange for the Minister to attend and answer in public all the questions he has so far avoided," she said.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee has already written to Minister for Sports and Tourism John O’Donoghue last week seeking information on the leaks.

Fine Gael spokesman for sport Jimmy Deenihan said the centre was a "costly mess is typical of the Government’s haphazard handling of important pieces of public infrastructure".

He referred to an answer to a parliamentary question he tabled two weeks ago in which the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O’Donoghue described the centre as "money very well spent."

"With this approach to project planning and assessment, it is not a surprise that we see the chronic situation emerging at the Aquatic Centre," Mr Deenihan said.