Original proposals for the national event centre at Punchestown were not fully costed when they were approved by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, The Irish Times has learned. Liam Reid reports.
It comes as members of the Public Accounts Committee prepare to visit the controversial event centre in the Minister's constituency tomorrow morning. They are expected to seek detailed answers from Punchestown management about the costings for the project.
The decision by Mr McCreevy and his colleague in the Department of Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to fund the centre without a technical evaluation of the proposal was strongly criticised a fortnight ago by the PAC.
As outlined in a critical report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), the initial cost of the eventing centre and ancillary facilities, which were approved for 100 per cent funding by Mr McCreevy in January 2000, was €6.9 million.
Less than six months later, Punchestown submitted a further proposal for the centre, bringing the total cost to nearly €13 million, which was also approved by the Minister, following a recommendation from Mr Walsh. Further grants brought total Government funding to nearly €15 million.
The main increase in the overall cost of the project was the rise in the cost of building the event centre from €3.1 million to €6.5 million. Other facilities, which make up the remaining costs, included new stabling and entrance facilities, roads, landscaping and parade rings. The Department of Agriculture did not seek technical advice on either of the proposals.
The C&AG, who was concerned about the rise, was told by the Department that the rise had been caused by significant changes to the design of the centre following an inspection of similar event centres in England and Europe. There were "structural and costly changes" to the original design, including making it a clear span building, with internal climate control.
However, according to sources close to Punchestown, the original €3.1 million cost was inadequate to build an event centre capable of holding trade shows and exhibitions on a year-round basis.
According to Punchestown sources, when management began to work on the detailed proposals, it emerged that the original €3.1 million budget would finance an empty shell of a building that could be used for only very basic events.
"After January, when it came to sitting down and using a calculator, the full cost of implementing all of the proposal became clear," according to informed sources.
"The concept was very different from reality," according to another source.
This is backed up by equivalent prices for 1999 collated in annual figures on Irish building prices. The cost per square metre of basic steel frame structures such as a factory shell ranged from €365 per sq m rising to €460 per sq m. The cost of the original Punchestown proposal was €310 per sq m.
Yesterday, Fine Gael TD and PAC chairman, Mr John Perry, said that further revelations had caused him "serious concern". These included the overall poor financial state of the racecourse when it received the State aid, the usage of the centre for mainly non-agricultural events, and unsuitability for major showjumping events.