No more funding for science museum without strategy, OPW says

A visualisation of the proposed National Children’s Science Centre in Dublin. File picture: 3ddesignbureau.com

The Office of Public Works has agreed that no additional funding should be released for the proposed National Children’s Science Museum, which it is legally obligated to build, unless an “overall strategy” is put in place.

The OPW, which manages the State's property portfolio, told the Public Accounts Committee it accepts a recommendation that the proposed €70m museum be given "urgent consideration" to avoid further spending in the absence of an overall strategy.

The recommendation was made in a PAC report published last July, which concluded that the long-running dispute was unlikely to be resolved through engagement between the OPW and the project's backers, Irish Children's Museum Limited (ICML). 

Instead, it said the issue would "require consideration at an appropriate level across Government".

The museum project has existed in various guises since the early 1990s and was first signed up to by the OPW in 2003.

The project has been the subject of two separate arbitration proceedings since 2013. 

Both were decided in favour of ICML and concluded that the OPW is legally obligated to construct the museum. 

This is despite the OPW acknowledging publicly that it has no desire to do so and no sponsoring department can be found to handle the build.

Last month the Department of Further Education distanced itself from any association with the museum project, arguing its concern is “adults, not children”.

Over €4m in legal fees and consultancy costs has been spent on the project to date. The OPW is currently working towards its deadline of December 31 for launching tenders for the project

The response to the PAC’s six recommendations, released by the OPW’s parent body the Department of Public Expenditure, notes that the OPW has accepted that before further funding is committed, a value-for-money assessment should be carried out.

The department also states, however, that it would be inappropriate for the OPW itself to carry out that assessment given its status as contracting authority.