Cabinet to decide Abbey site soon

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, is to ask the Cabinet to approve a new Dublin site for the Abbey Theatre within a matter of weeks.

The Minister is currently studying two sites, Hawkins House - the home of the Department of Health which was once the site of the Theatre Royal - and Coláiste Mhuire, a former school, on Parnell Square.

A third site at Infirmary Road has been ruled out because it is perceived to be too far from the the city centre. Another possibility, the former Carlton Cinema site in O'Connell Street, has been dropped because of a legal dispute over ownership.

A spokesman for Mr O'Donoghue insisted last night that no decision on the two final sites had yet been made, but the Minister was particularly keen to resolve the issue before Christmas, allowing the decision on the future of the Abbey to be taken in its centenary year.

The spokesman said appraisal of the two sites was still being carried out by the Office of Public Works which was looking at the "commercial sensitivities" of the Coláiste Mhuire site. The spokesman explained that commercial sensitivities was a reference to the fact that "not all of the site at Parnell Square is in public ownership". But he added that whichever site emerged from the process is to be brought to Cabinet by Mr O'Donoghue "within weeks".

While the Coláiste Mhuire site has the advantage of retaining the Abbey Theatre within the north inner-city - in the constituency of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern - the five publicly owned Georgian houses on the site are listed for preservation in the Dublin City Development Plan. To move the Abbey successfully to the site would represent an architectural challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

Coláiste Mhuire has the advantage of being on Parnell Square where the Gate Theatre, the Ambassador Cinema, the Dublin Writers' Museum, and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery are already housed. The National Wax Museum is around the corner in Granby Row. The establishment of the Abbey Theatre on the square would be a major boost for Dublin City Council's hopes to expand the cultural range of facilities in the north city.

Against this, Hawkins House has regularly featured in various lists of Dublin's worst buildings. The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, remarked on taking up office there recently that half the windows wouldn't open while the other half wouldn't close. Its city centre location and association with the Theatre Royal are seen as positive elements.

The Government initially decided to redevelop the Abbey on its existing site and turned down the offer of a new site in the docklands. However, the existing site is not large enough and acquiring additional properties would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.