Problems of Abbey site outlined

Nobody should assume they can get more than market price for a property just because the State is involved in the bidding, the Minister for Arts has warned.

Mr O'Donoghue, who expressed his regret that he could not announce a new site for the Abbey Theatre during its centenary last year, told the Dáil that the Government "is obliged to safeguard taxpayers' money".

He was referring to the withdrawal by the State from the bidding for 1 Granby Row, the property adjacent to the publicly owned Coláiste Mhuire building on Parnell Square in Dublin. The Minister said the OPW, which has responsibility for public buildings, confirmed to him that the Coláiste Mhuire site would not be sufficiently large for use as the National Theatre without the Granby Row building.

But it "was satisfied that the amount being sought was way over the market value and entirely unreasonable and in those circumstances we withdrew from the negotiations".

Hawkins House now remains the only property publicly still "in play" as an option for the new Abbey, but the Minister said a number of other options were also available.

He is awaiting a new report from the OPW, which he had asked to reconsider the issue. "Due to the commercial sensitivities involved", he did not want to go into detail about which sites might or might not be available. Fine Gael's arts spokesman, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, said it was "rather strange" that the OPW had not agreed a price before the Minister recommended the Granby Row site to the Cabinet.

Mr O'Donoghue said both he and the OPW had been confident that the Parnell Square site would be acquired "in its entirety" but the amount being sought was "way over the market value and entirely unreasonable".

The Minister added that the Carlton site "is prima facie ideal for the new theatre on O'Connell Street.

The difficulty is that it is embroiled in legal difficulties and it does not appear as if the site will become available in the short to medium term."