Charity has occupied offices rent free since 2013 at site promised for children's museum, PAC told

At the  Public Accounts Committee  hearing, chair of the OPW John Conlon was told that the proposed museum represented an 'absolute unmitigated disaster' of governance, an accusation he did not dispute. File photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

A group to whom the Government has legally committed to building a children’s science museum in Dublin at a cost of €70m has been occupying two offices at the site rent free for the past 12 years.

The Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday that Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML) — a consortium of individuals including prominent barrister Michael Collins and Ali Hewson, the wife of U2 frontman Bono — was given access to the offices in 2013 as part of an arbitration process which legally bound the Office of Public Works to build the museum.