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A PLANNED CHILDREN’S science centre in Dublin, potentially costing over €70 million, has put the state “over a barrel”, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard.
The development of a National Children’s Science Centre, a project first proposed over 20 years ago, was up at PAC again today, where the board behind the project was questioned for over three hours.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) reached an agreement in 2003 with a charity, Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML), to build the centre, however construction is yet to begin as no department has committed to funding the project as the sponsoring authority.
A 2024 report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), which estimated that the project could cost €70 million, said that the OPW building the project “exposed the exchequer to unnecessary risk”.
Planning permission has been granted to build the centre on the same site as the National Concert Hall at Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin 2. The ICML, trading as National Children’s Science Centre (NCSC), previously told PAC it would raise up to €25 million to fit out the premises.
The charity previously took legal arbitration against the OPW over delays to the project. The arbitration determined that the OPW is legally bound to build the centre by the end of 2029.
John Conlon, Chairman of the OPW, said building is not possible without funding. However, he said the agency plans to put out a tender for the project by December of this year to fulfil its legal obligations.
The NCSC Board today appealed to the members of the committee and to Government to work with them to bring the project to life. Board member Luke O’Neill, a well known biochemist and Trinity college professor, said the project aligns with government’s goal to increase interest in STEM education and careers.
But Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe said that legal arbitration taken by the NCSC in 2003 “effectively got the state over a barrel”, and further action in 2013 “managed to get the state over two barrels”.
“I would argue that pursuing the legal claim is always preventative from seeking a solution, because it forces all government departments to act cautiously,” he said.
Barbara Galavan, NCSC chief, denied several accusations that the State was ‘put over a barrel’. The Board of the charity contends that the project is “stuck” due to the lack of government engagement.
Galavan appealed with the government for more engagement, outlining that she has contacted up to seven government departments on the matter, but says she has not been successful in getting an official meeting with any department.
She said “it’s a shame that 20 years” after getting involved in a project in “good faith with government” Ireland still remains the only OECD country without a National Children’s Science Centre.
Several issues with the project were raised before the Committee today, a meeting in which Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy John Brady said that during his time on PAC, he has “never been as frustrated”.
It emerged that today was the first time the three main parties central to the creation of the centre, Galavan, Conlon and Fionn Jenkinson, for the Department of Public Expenditure, had sat in a room together.
Jenkinson said today that “correct processes” weren’t followed in relation to the OPW’s commitment to the project, which wasn’t given official approval by the Department.
Meanwhile Conlon, Chairman of the OPW, estimated that the cost of the project so far is over €5 million in public money, which Fine Gael Joe Neville TD said has been spent on “absolutely nothing”.
Part of the money was spent when NSCS initiated the legal arbitration against the OPW.
Conlon maintains the OPW is just the contracting authority for the project, and funding is needed from elsewhere.
“I’m very genuinely sick to the teeth of this line,” Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan said. The TD earlier said the “unholy mess” does not lie at the feet of the NSCS board.
Addressing Conlon, he said: “You won’t be able to come back crying to the Committee… The obligation legally right now is on you to solve this mess.”
“If the state stop fulfilling legal obligations, we’re in a very serious scenario. Don’t come back to this committee in a couple of months saying, ‘no parent authority has shown up’, because that’s not a sufficient excuse. You have to take the bull by the horns here as the accounting officer to find the resolution.”
In response, Conlon said secretaries general of relevant departments have so far been “very reluctant to engage” due to the legal process around it.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne said the NCSC and the OPW have “used their connections to strong arm the state” into the project.
“I’m of the firm belief that this is a vanity project and very much an unwelcome remnant of the Celtic Era and the era,” she said.
Labour TD Eoghan Kenny described the situation as an “absolute shambles”, particularly the Department of Public Expenditure and the OPW’s involvement.
“It’s a shocking indictment on this state that a legal obligation was made to build this museum and it hasn’t been done. And you come in here today and none of you will take any slack for the fact that this still isn’t done, despite entering into a legal obligation,” he said.
The suggestion of combining the science centre with Sandyford’s Explorium, a private national sport & science centre, was raised several times.
People Before Profit Paul Murphy asked the NSCS if it was willing to combine the centres in Sandyford, rather than continue planning the project for Earlsfort Terrace.
Professor Luke O’Neill said Earlsfort Terrace is the Board’s preferred location, but the Board members said that they can look at a variety of options with engagement of government.
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