Sir, - In your issue of June 24th you quote the newly appointed chief executive of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Noel Carroll, as saying "the Government's continuing indecision over the proposed new conference centre is costing £30m a year in lost revenue and up to 1,500 jobs". This is absolute drivel and, as a former member of the Bord Failte family, as I am, Noel Carroll knows it. The year round maintenance and administration of a national conference centre is beyond the fiscal capacity of the travel trade and all in the trade agree on that. They want the State, through Bord Failte, to shoulder these costs with the trade dividing the profit loot.
Without the hurdy gurdies and trick at the loop slot machines a national conference centre is a financial albatross. The RDS with its structure and experience could operate a no frills conference unit without subsidy. A modern conference centre with today's technology could be located in the RDS on a fixed annual subsidy, but from whom? The decision taken on the proposed Phoenix Park conference/juke box centre was a correct one.
In the light of the above, perhaps the Dublin Chamber of Commerce will cease its regular bleating about the need for a conference centre in Dublin unless, of course, their benefit members are willing to pay for it. I wish Noel well in his new appointment and suggest that in the absence of filthy lucre he lays the conference centre myth to rest. - Yours, etc.,
Carricklawn,
Upper Kilmacud Road,
Dublin 14.