THE DEVELOPMENT OF a children’s science centre has advanced without the normal safeguards for a major public capital project and exposed the Exchequer to “significant legal and financial risk”, according to the Public Accounts Committee. 

The observation is set out in a report by PAC on the National Children’s Science Centre, a project first proposed over 25 years ago.

The ongoing saga surrounding its development has been discussed at a number of PAC hearings in the last number of years due to long-running governance and funding issues.

The report highlights that the Office of Public Works (OPW) remains legally bound to deliver the project by 2029, despite there being no sponsoring department and no funding allocated within the National Development Plan.

Among its recommendations, the report says the OPW should undertake a “comprehensive assessment” of the financial and legal implications of abandoning the project. 

More than €4.27 million has already been spent on legal fees, consultancy, surveys and related project costs so far, with additional legal bills still to be finalised.

In 2024, the OPW estimated the total construction cost at €70.4 million. This excludes exhibition and planetarium fit-out costs that were priced in the region of €19 million in 2022, as well as an estimated €30 million in government support over a ten-year period to go towards operational and exhibit renewal costs.

“Our interim report reflects a project that has remained unresolved for more than 20 years, without clear Government ownership, without an approved business case and without an agreed funding route,” PAC chair John Brady said.

That is not a satisfactory position for any major public project, particularly one that continues to carry legal and financial implications for the State.

The development of a national science and technology museum was first proposed in 2000. 

Timeline

The Office of Public Works (OPW) reached an agreement with a charity called the Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML) in 2003 to provide a premises for the centre in Kilmainham, near Heuston railway station in Dublin.

In February 2007, then-taoiseach Bertie Ahearn unveiled the architectural design for the science centre, but the project stalled during the economic crash.

Members of the Public Accounts Committee holding the report. PAC PAC

In 2013, ICML indicated it would start an arbitration process in a bid to compel the OPW to fulfil its contractual obligations under the 2003 agreement.

The lease for the Kilmainham site was terminated and a new agreement was reached for a building on an OPW-owned site at Earlsfort Terrace, adjacent to the National Concert Hall, in Dublin.

Planning permission was granted in 2016. 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.

In 2021, ICML initiated further arbitration proceedings against the OPW because of the unfulfilled obligations committed to under the 2013 settlement agreement. A determination the following year required the OPW to apply for planning permission, obtain tenders and pre-qualify contractors for the agreed site by 20 November 2022.

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”.

Recommendations

In its report, the PAC noted the “unusual position” whereby the State, through the OPW, remains subject to legally binding obligations arising from the arbitration process, including obligations relating to procurement and tender preparation, “notwithstanding that no sponsoring authority has been identified and no funding source has been agreed”.

It said the obligations from the arbitration process require the OPW to continue to progress procurement and tender preparation.

“In that context, the Committee considers that the matter requires urgent consideration by the OPW so as to prevent further spending on the project without an overall strategy being in place,” it states. 

The PAC said the OPW, the Department of Public Expenditure and representatives of the National Children’s Science Centre must work together “with a view to identifying a way forward for the project or a way to end any commitment to the project while minimising any cost to the State”. 

It also called on the National Children’s Science Centre to consider “the wider public interest in the pursuit of their mission”.

The Committee, in this context, acknowledges that any Department will have significant legal and financial difficulties in sponsoring and taking on the project.

It recommended that the OPW undertake “a comprehensive assessment of the project’s
costs, benefits, governance arrangements, operational model, long-term funding
requirements and value for money, including an assessment of the financial, legal
and contractual implications of terminating or withdrawing from the project”. 

The PAC said the Department of Public Expenditure and the OPW should provide a progress update within three months.

Brady said political intervention is now required.

“The Government cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand on this. It is clear that the issues surrounding this project will not be resolved by the parties currently involved acting alone,” he said. 

“Without Government leadership and a clear political decision, the State faces continued uncertainty, escalating costs and the very real prospect of further legal disputes.”