Obligation to build children’s science museum shows charity has its 'foot on the throat' of OPW

Vice chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Catherine Murphy said: 'I’m struggling to understand how a charitable organisation can have their foot on the throat of the State for something like this. I wish that the people in my area were as powerful.' File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

A charity has its "foot on the throat" of the Office of Public Works (OPW) over plans to spend €70m on a second children’s science museum in Dublin, it has been claimed.

The OPW is legally obligated to build the second museum, despite the fact a privately-owned interactive children’s science museum has existed in the south of the city since 2019. Planning permission was delivered for the construction of the new four-storey museum on the site of the National Concert Hall off St Stephen’s Green last March.