Serious concerns remain about "the conception, management and financial outcome" of the €14 million Jeanie Johnston replica Famine ship project in Tralee, Co Kerry, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural resources said yesterday. Anne Lucey reports from Killarney.
In a statement, Mr Ahern said the ship had cost seven times more than its current valuation of less than €2 million, and most of the cost had been provided by State agencies.
With Kerry County Council, the Minister has jointly commissioned a full review of the project, from the aspect of public funding, to be carried out with the assistance of Mr Seán Cromien, former secretary general of the Department of Finance.
Mr Cromien will be asked to make recommendations for future involvement of public agencies in such projects, the Minister said.
Mr Ahern stressed the "exceptional quality of the Jeanie Johnston vessel, which has now been completed to the highest safety standards". The vessel had recently been granted a sea-going certificate.
He also praised the council and town council's decision to take over the project in partnership with Kerry Group plc and Shannon Development. This provided the only real alternative to an unstructured liquidation and "might well be the final chance to preserve the use of the vessel for the tourism and heritage purposes for which it was originally intended", Mr Ahern said.
However, serious concerns remained. The focus group set up to study the ship's future and the Comptroller and Auditor General had raised serious concerns about deficiencies in the project and the way public money was provided.
The group concluded "there were serious deficiencies in the original concept . . . the project was inadequately managed".
Mr Ahern said many questions needed to be answered in relation to the project, "not least the fact that it has taken over €14 million largely provided by State agency funds, to construct a vessel which currently has a market valuation of less than €2 million".
Tralee Town Council and Kerry County Council is liable for more than €6 million in loan commitments and direct funding. Councillors have warned of cutbacks in services to pay for the ship. There have been several requests from councillors for detailed financial statements of expenditure.
The €500,000 balance of the total grant of €4 million allocated by his Department in the past two years would be made available to the new board once he was satisfied that appropriate management arrangements had been put in place to ensure the project can go ahead with confidence, Mr Ahern said.
The position of trade creditors also had to be addressed as a matter of priority.