Failure to deliver conference centre in Dublin 'mystifying'

Dublin Chamber of Commerce has criticised the Government for its failure to open an international conference centre in the city, more than 10 years after funding was first allocated to the project.

Yesterday chamber president Áine Maria Mizzoni said the Government must supply "absolute clarity" as to the timeframe for delivery of the centre.

She said the concept of an international conference centre was first introduced in a government tourism programme in 1994, and €33 million of EU funding was made available for the project. More than 10 years later a preferred bidder had still not been selected.

Two bidders, at Spencer Dock and Alexandra Dock, were recently invited to tender for the 2,000-seat conference centre, and one is expected to be chosen by July.

Ms Mizzoni said international conferences were being booked three to five years in advance, so organisers needed guarantees as to when the centre would be built and to what specification.

Planning permission was granted for an international centre at Spencer Dock in 2000, but the project was abandoned when an ancillary hotel and apartment development was refused planning permission.

Ms Mizzoni said the chamber was "mystified, dismayed and frustrated" by the delay in delivering the centre.

This week chamber of commerce members met the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport and Tourism and criticised Government inaction on the project.

"If Ireland has difficulty in agreeing the progress of something that is so blatantly good and patently beneficial for Dublin and the wider economy, what hope have we ever of seeing some of our more complex but still necessary projects such as the metro, the south port access route or widening of the M50?" Ms Mizzoni asked the Oireachtas committee members.