OPW accused of 'wanton waste' for not imposing penalties on Convention Centre

 Sinn Féin's Imelda Munster TD accused the OPW of 'not giving a hoot about taxpayer’s money.'

The Office of Public Works has been accused of “wanton waste” after it emerged that it did not impose financial penalties on Dublin’s Convention Centre for failing to meet footfall targets.

At the Public Accounts Committee, the OPW acknowledged that the private operators of the Convention Centre, operated via a public-private partnership (PPP) with the OPW, are seeking “full forgiveness” regarding penalties totalling €1.5m due to loss of business during the pandemic.

Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster accused the OPW of “not giving a hoot about taxpayer’s money” after the State’s accountant Seamus McCarthy, the comptroller and auditor general, stated that the Convention Centre contract was “clear”, and that “if the boot was on the other foot the company would be entitled to get its money back”.

Ms Munster described a situation where the State doesn’t claim its money back as being one of “wanton waste”.

'No mad urgency'

Chair of the OPW Maurice Buckley replied that the contract is a 14-year one and that “there’s no mad urgency” regarding whether or not a penalty should be paid or not.

He acknowledged to Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy that the State is under no obligation to forgive the penalty, but said the OPW “haven’t taken a decision not to” refund the penalty to the operator.

Meanwhile, Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy suggested that the deference shown to the private sector in projects like the Convention Centre and the National Children’s Hospital suggests there is a “culture of fear” within the public service in terms of enforcing its contractual entitlements.

The chair was quizzed regarding the move of all gardaí from their former Dublin HQ at Harcourt Square to the force’s new operational base at Walter Scott House on Military Rod in Kilmainham.

He said that all gardaí have now finally moved from the former as of early November, though the new building is not large enough to accommodate the 1,400 personnel in question.

Mr Buckley repeatedly stated that just 600 gardaí were present in Harcourt Square when the scope of a new building was being evaluated in 2015.

This is at odds with previous statements he has made as to that figure in which he has suggested the figure was between 800 and 900 in Harcourt Square, while the OPW has previously stated on record that the figure that needed to be moved was 1,090 as of May 2016.

The €86.6m Military Road building, which has a capacity for about 850 people, has faced staunch criticism due to it being too small to accommodate the full complement of gardaí.

Mr Buckley was unable to outline how much the cost of accommodating the surplus gardaí at roughly six overspill sites around Dublin amounts to, but promised to furnish the information to the committee.

“Would you not have brought that with you?” Ms Murphy asked.

Children's museum

The committee also heard that the State is set to build a second children’s museum on the site of the National Concert Hall — despite there being a “perfectly good” such museum in Sandyford, south Dublin said Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll McNeill — due to a contractual obligation dating from 2003, ten years before the Sandyford building was even constructed.

“How on earth are we progressing a children’s museum that we don’t need because we’ve a perfectly good one back in Sandyford?” she asked.