A tax consultant for the Spencer Dock developers rejected claims presented to the Bord Pleanala hearing last week that the development would actually "cost" the Exchequer and Dublin Corporation £525 million.
Mr Jim Clery, a director at KPMG, rejected a submission made by Mr Colm McCarthy of DKM Economic Consultants for the financier Mr Dermot Desmond that the development would "cost" the authorities that much through a combination of grants and a "rich menu" of tax breaks.
He said the only State aid the Spencer Dock development would get was a £26 million grant for the National Conference Centre.
Mr Clery said there was "no current entitlement to double rent allowances of £81 million, rates relief of £100 million and capital allowances of £186 million".
He said although the site would qualify for tax relief for owner/occupiers, this scheme ends on June 30th, 2000. Dr Florian Hugentobler from Electrowatt Engineering Ltd in Zurich told the hearing, on behalf of the developers, of the need for an underground rail station in the Spencer Dock development. Dr Hugentobler said the station should be between 15 and 20 metres underground. Dr John O'Shea spoke on behalf of the developers about a proposed co-generation plant for the development. He said co-generation involved the "extracting of two kinds of energy - heat and electrical power - from a single fuel source". He said such a process would reduce by half the yearly output of carbon dioxide discharges.
Mr Barry Cleverdon, chief executive of NEC group, which operates the Conference Centre in Birmingham, who has been enlisted by the Spencer Dock consortium to operate the National Conference Centre, told the hearing that "Dublin was not reaching its full potential in the convention market".