A provider of emergency accommodation overcharged the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) €7.4 million, while a public science museum for children, which may cost more than €70 million after 20 years of discussion, now faces competition from a private sector venture.
These are among the revelations highlighted by the State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in his annual report. The report’s function is to set out examples of waste and inefficient spending of public money by Government departments and agencies.
1) Yet-to-be built children’s science museum may cost €70m
The report criticised the Office of Public Works (OPW) for its role over more than 20 years in a yet-to-be-built children’s science museum, which may end up costing the State in excess of €70 million.
The project, first proposed in the 1990s, led to the OPW reaching an agreement in 2003 with a registered charity, Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML), to build a “world-class children’s science museum” in Ireland. ICML trustees include Ali Hewson, wife of U2’s Bono, Prof Luke O’Neill and barrister Michael Collins.
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The protracted delays in building the museum have happened alongside much-changed market conditions for cultural and interactive facilities aimed at children. Some of these facilities have opened and subsequently closed, “indicating challenges in sustaining such ventures”, the comptroller says.
Separately, Explorium, a privately-funded interactive science and sports centre, has been operating in Sandyford, Dublin, since 2018. It has approximately 300 interactive exhibits focused on science, technology, engineering, the arts and maths.
The State has incurred more than €4.2 million to date on the museum project, including €563,000 in legal costs. The original lease with ICML indicated it would cost €14.3 million at the proposed Heuston Gate development on State-owned land in Dublin. The OPW planned to sell the site near Heuston Station to a developer.
2) €7.4m overcharge by an emergency accommodation provider
The report also maintained that between March, 2022 and December, 2023, an emergency accommodation provider to IPAS included a charge for VAT on invoices, even though the provision of emergency accommodation is VAT exempt. It found the provider overcharged IPAS €7.4 million.
“The provider has refunded amounts totalling €1.5 million to date,” according to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report. “The Dept of Justice has stated that recovery of the remaining VAT overcharge remains under review.”
3) €248,500 worth of unused hotel beds for soccer clash
The Comptroller also found An Garda Síochána spent €590,000 on hotel accommodation over three nights for members policing the May 2024 Uefa Europa final in Dublin, of which €248,500 was spent on accommodation that was never used.
A month before the match, the force had 727 rooms booked with a potential occupancy of 1,454 members, but the Garda Representative Association complained that shared rooms were unsatisfactory, it said.
An Garda Síochána pointed out that twin rooms booked as single rooms cost almost the same when the single occupancy supplement was added, the report said. When gardaí cancelled 246 rooms in the run up to the special policing operation, it was charged €91,577 by six of the 11 affected hotels.
4) Millions spent on TB eradication in cattle but infection rates on rise
The report also said that €100 million had been spent last year on the Department of Agriculture’s TB eradication programme which aims to wipe out the disease in cattle by 2030, but instead infection rates are rising. The budget for the scheme last year overran by about 76 per cent.
The report found one in 12 vets whose work on TB testing was inspected last year were sanctioned for irregularities.
Just over 1,000 private veterinary practitioners carried out almost 10 million tests on cattle in 2024 and the work of 151 was reviewed. Of those who were reviewed, 13 were found to be non-compliant with testing regulations.
Ten were suspended from testing duties and three were made to undergo retraining and further inspection.
5) Ministers facing liabilities following pensions review
Meanwhile, the Comptroller’s report also indicates that serving ministers and ministers of state face liabilities of about €5,200 each, on average, following a review of their pensions and pension contributions.
It says 32 ministers, collectively, had a net liability of €167,649.
The chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, John Brady of Sinn Féin, said it would be heavily scrutinising “the concerning levels of waste of public funds detailed in the report, highlighting in particular the deep lack of accountability, due diligence and oversight of the international protection accommodation system”.
6) Social home building targets fall short
The report also found that the number of social homes built or bought in Ireland last year fell short of targets by 10 per cent.
A total of 5,165 homes, comprising both new build and acquisitions, were delivered by local authorities in 2024.
In terms of affordable housing, which includes cost rental and affordable purchase homes, the Department of Housing exceeded its 2024 target by 11 per cent, with 7,125 new homes delivered.
The report found there is no central database within the department of all social and affordable housing capital projects being delivered under its housing programme.
While the department started an IT project in 2023 to improve its data management, it will not be fully implemented until 2028, at a cost of €12.8 million.
