Axing of marine centre 'baffling'

PLANS TO develop a national marine conservation centre in north Co Dublin have been axed, despite the fact that Fingal County Council has spent more than €650,000 on consultants for the project.

The council said it feared the €6.65 million project would become a “white elephant” because of a funding shortfall of over €1.65 million and a lack of money to support the centre in its loss-making early years.

The Irish Seal Sanctuary, which has promoted the National Marine Conservation and Education Centre at Bremore, near Balbriggan, described the council’s decision as “baffling, at best, and disingenuous, at worst”.

It claimed the council excluded it from the design of the project and said the shortfall could be significantly reduced if the council went to tender again in the current changed economic climate.

The centre, which was to be the first of its kind in the State, was to provide shelter and treatment for rescued marine wildlife, as well as serving as a tourism attraction.

The council committed €3 million to the project, and Fáilte Ireland €2 million. The original tender, which came in at €9 million, was too expensive, so a scaled-back version of the project, to cost €6.65 million, was drawn up and planning permission was obtained.

The council said it offered money on the basis that a viable proposal was made to develop and run the centre without the need for further financial support. It said the current proposal was unviable and that projected losses of €380,000 in the first three years were “extremely optimistic”.

It has excluded the project from its current three-year capital programme. “The project as currently proposed will not be viable unless the additional funding needed can be found from another partner,” the council’s head of corporate services Peter Caulfield said.

The sanctuary never put forward funding of its own or funding from a third party in support of the proposal, he said. The council was not prepared to put money into a privately run centre unless it had a tourism dimension, but it was not possible to provide this for less than the amount tendered.

Mr Caulfield also defended the spending of €650,000 on “expert services” for the project. He said the unique design of the proposed building necessitated engagement of quantity surveyors, architects and engineers.

Pauline Beades of the Irish Seal Sanctuary said the council had moved the goalposts: “They spent a fortune on it and only then poked holes in the grand plan.”

The sanctuary was confident of raising at least €1 million itself, she said, and had commitments for free building materials. However, these could not be included under the rules of the public private partnership proposed. The decision was an “abuse” of work done by volunteers on the project, she said.