No Government funding to build €70m children’s museum planned for Christmas 2029

The planned National Children’s Science Centre. Picture: 3ddesignbureau.com

A €70m children’s science museum in Dublin is to be completed by Christmas 2029, despite there being no government funding to build it, the Irish Examiner has learned.

The OPW said a final arbitration decision between itself and the charity proposing the museum — known as Irish Children’s Museum Limited (ICML) — means “works shall be carried out and completed on or before December 25, 2029”, including time required to procure a contractor.

ICML recently pledged to raise €25m in contributions towards the construction of the museum, which has been mooted for over 25 years. 

However, the OPW, which manages the State’s property portfolio, reiterated that a government department or agency willing to fund the build has “yet to be identified”.

“Preparation of the tender documentation will begin shortly,” the OPW said in reply to a parliamentary query by Public Accounts Committee chair John Brady.

Mr Brady said this “beggars belief”.

“This is a project with no sponsoring department, no secured funding, no allocation in the National Development Plan, and therefore no path to delivery,” he said.

“Yet it appears the State is about to initiate a costly tendering process, potentially enter into further contracts, and therefore expose the State to further liabilities when the funding to conduct the works is not available.”

He said he could see “no credible path for the December 2029 deadline to be met and therefore further legal proceedings await, draining yet more public money”.

Mr Brady called for the public expenditure minister Jack Chambers to intervene to “proactively protect public funds, not to sit idly by and observe a massive and growing liability to the Irish taxpayer”.