Children’s science museum: How a 20-year €70m plan became a political ‘omnishambles’

A €70m State children’s museum remains unrealised after two decades of shifting plans, political resistance, and relentless lobbying by its earliest champions

A visualisation of the proposed but as yet unrealised national children’s science centre. Picture: 3ddesignbureau.com

The unrealised plan for a State-owned national children’s science museum in Dublin hit the headlines again this week, as the Dáil public accounts committee (PAC) heard that the 20-year-old project lacked transparency, and even a basic business case, from the very start.

Described as an “omnishambles” and “unmitigated disaster” by the TDs present at Thursday’s PAC hearing, one might have been of the opinion that the €70m project will quietly disappear into the night, given that nobody in the Government wants anything to do with it.