No minutes exist for Cork events centre funding meeting

No minutes exist of the only meeting held between Department of Culture officials and Cork City Council on funding for the long-delayed events centre, the department has revealed.

Officials from the local authority met department representatives on April 19 last, at a time when developers BAM, which had won a public tender for €20m in state aid to develop the venue on the Beamish and Crawford site, had requested a further €18m in public funding.

Peter Horgan, the Labour Party representative in Cork, sought the minutes of this meeting under the Freedom of Information Act but had his request rejected on the grounds that such records do not exist.

Mr Horgan said the failure to keep minutes of the meeting “has raised further questions of transparency and governance as the events centre project continues to stall”.

He said: “It’s extraordinary to me that such a meeting, dealing with a large financial request, would not have minutes documented. The new Minister for Culture, Josepha Madigan, must take action on this issue.”

Meanwhile, BAM has dropped plans to develop a seven-screen cinema as part of its development at the Beamish and Crawford site, and is seeking to replace it with office and educational space.

“This project is mired in secrecy and stalled in limbo, with the people of Cork on the hook for it,” said Mr Horgan.

“That the complex is now under an application for a change of use says it all really.

“Why city council has not met in public on this matter is beyond me. I know of businesses that have extended lines of credit for this project,” said Mr Horgan.

Neither the council nor the department replied to queries yesterday.