Conference centre 'to boost tourism'

A NEW national conference centre could inject up to €50 million into the economy, Tourism Minister John O'Donoghue said yesterday.

Announcing the Government's approval for the construction of a dedicated centre, Mr O'Donoghue said it would tap into a lucrative international conference market.

"It has the potential to provide between €25m-€50m in incremental annual business depending on various estimates," he said.

Mr O'Donoghue said conference visitors were traditionally high spending, compared to normal tourists.

"We believe we can generate an additional 30,000 annual visitors. The Irish Hotels Federation put it as high as 50,000."

These visitors will be in addition to the existing 120,000 conference and meetings delegates currently coming to Ireland.

He said the centre would be located in Dublin, but could not say where.

He added: "Dublin is probably the only capital in Europe without a dedicated centre."

He said the Government had decided to invite the private sector to put forward proposals for the construction of the centre. In turn the State would enter into an arrangement to lease the centre from the successful company.

He said three parties had already indicated an interest in competing for the project.

A high-level steering committee made up of officials from the Department of Tourism, Office of Public Works, Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Finance will meet within the next ten days.

Mr O'Donoghue said he could not say at this stage how long the process would take.

He said the private construction of the centre would ensure that the Government did not breach strict EU expenditure rules, reflected in the Government general balance.

The Minister accepted that a number of previous attempts to construct a national conference centre had failed but expected a better outcome this time.

The most recent attempt, at Dublin's Spencer Dock in 2000, was abandoned after An Bord Pleanála rejected a major high rise development including hotels, nine office blocks and 11 apartment blocks which was part of a proposal by Treasury Holdings.

Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation yesterday welcomed the announcement.