Punchestown to hit taxpayer again with McCreevy summit

Charlie McCreevy will hire out Punchestown racecourse for an EU summit next year at a cost of tens of thousands of euro after controversially fast-tracking E15 million worth of State funding for its event centre.

Mr McCreevy will show off the facility, described as his pet project, to EU finance ministers when he hosts a summit at the racecourse in his Co Kildare heartland in April as part of the Ireland’s EU presidency.

The Finance Ministerial Council meeting will be attended by around 250 delegates from 25 EU countries and institutions and 350 media and will be a major money-spinner for the local economy.

As the controversy over the failure to follow guidelines for the project continued yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern strongly defended the roles of Mr McCreevy and Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh in the affair.

While confirming the Department of Finance was paying Punchestown to hire the venue for the ECOFIN meeting, Mr McCreevy’s spokesman said last night he could not say how much it was costing the taxpayer.

According to the spokesman, the event centre will be used for the summit meetings, while the racecourse grandstand will be used as a media centre.

“Punchestown is particularly suitable given its size, its adaptability and the fact it is capable of being secured. We will be using facilities other than the event centre,” the spokesman said.

While the summit will last two days, it will take a number of days either side of the event for the Office of Public Works to set up and dismantle the conference facilities, meaning the venue will have to be hired for up to a week.

Despite the full cost of the project being met by the taxpayer, the venue now had to do its best in terms of making money and meeting running costs, Mr McCreevy’s spokesman said.

Summit delegates will stay in Citywest Hotel in Dublin and attend dinners in Palmerstown House and the K Club, both in Co Kildare. The entire bill for the summit is unknown to date, but the European Central Bank will make some contribution to the running costs.

But industry sources said last night the cost of hiring Punchestown could easily run into six figures, depending upon the facilities on offer and the level of catering for the event.

Punchestown Racecourse chief executive Richard O’Sullivan was unavailable for comment on the cost of hiring the venue for events yesterday, as he was preparing for this weekend’s two-day race meet at the track.

Continuing a tradition from previous EU presidencies, Mr McCreevy is not the only member of Cabinet to be hosting his

colleagues on home turf. Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen brings EU foreign ministers to Tullamore, Co Offaly, in April and Minister for Health Micheál Martin is holding a heart disease conference in Cork city in May.

Yesterday, Mr Ahern defended the decision to grant the 14.8m for the project and said the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report said proper tendering procedures and inspections were conducted.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on Mr Ahern to say if he stands over the way Mr McCreevy and Mr Walsh dealt with the funding application.