Despite having ended almost nine months ago, the Republic's millennium celebrations are continuing to hit the taxpayer, with the bill topping £12 million in current and capital expenditure, according to the report.
The most costly project was the Last Light Ceremony which involved supplying a candle and millennium scroll to every household in the State. This cost £1.87 million to May 31st this year. The staging of Handel's Messiah at Dublin's Point Theatre on December 4th and 5th cost £700,000 and the report says the Government is not likely to recoup any of it. While the promoters said at the time 10 per cent of net profits would go to Irish charities, the report notes nothing has been agreed on this front to date.
Negotiations with US music and television companies to broadcast the show have got nowhere so far, says the report. Questioned on the matter yesterday, one of the promoters, musician Mr Frank McNamara, said: "I have no comment to make and certainly not to The Irish Times".
Various projects organised by the Government's millennium committee are strongly criticised for their financial shortcomings and lack of accounting control in the report.
Among them is the Liffey Boardwalk, the pedestrian walkway to run along the river between O'Connell and Grattan bridges. A payment from the millennium committee of £133,750 was made without any invoices or architects' certificates being submitted by the company building the structure, Mile Atha Cliath Teo. The report also says the millennium committee failed to ask the company to produce insurance policies. The New Year's Eve concert held in Merrion Square cost £922,000 up to May. The report says there was no legal agreement with the company who put on the event and the millennium committee did not inspect the company's accounts or examine invoices and payment requests.
Commercial sponsorship was meant to be organised for the event so the exposure of the State would be reduced but this never happened. The report says the millennium committee never investigated why.