€400m conference centre to open doors by 2009

THE €400 million National Conference Centre will open its doors by 2009, according to informed sources.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue yesterday confirmed that the Government has given the green-light to the long awaited project, which will be located in Dublin’s dock lands.

Situated on the Spencer Dock site on the north side of the Liffey, the centre will have a capacity of 2,000 and will be built by the Treasury Holdings/Irish Rail consortium.

Mr O’Donoghue said yesterday that this consortium had become the “provisional preferred tender (PPT) for the centre following a detailed assessment of all tenders received.”

The consortium will enter negotiations with the Office of Public Works to build the centre on a public-private partnership (PPP). Under this arrangement, the consortium will design and build the centre and lease it back to the State for a determined number of years, before the centre reverts to State ownership.

A crucial aspect of the negotiations will be fixing how long that period will be. The department said yesterday that it could not speculate on this question ahead of the talks.

Negotiations are expected to take about a year. If successful, building should commence in early 2007 and be completed within two years.

Business and tourism representatives have lobbied for many years for the provision of such a centre, which they say is critical for attracting international conferences to Ireland.

Irish architect Kevin Roche has designed the new centre. He was also responsible for New York’s acclaimed Metropolitan Museum of Art building.

Mr O’Donoghue described yesterday’s announcement as a major step forward.

“I am delighted that a further critical stage in the process of delivering a world-class national conference centre for Dublin has been completed,” he said.

However, Fine Gael’s Jimmy Deenihan said that the absence of a conference centre was costing the economy some e50m each year.

“It has long been Fine Gael’s view that it is an essential piece of infrastructure,” he said.

“One cannot help be somewhat sceptical given the Government’s track record on major infrastructural projects, particularly those involving PPPs.”

The consortium was successful against the rival bid of Anna Livia consortium. Treasury Holdings, one of the biggest development companies in the State, is run by Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan.