The Minister for Arts, Sport, and Tourism John O'Donoghue faces serious questions on the structuring of the deal to operate the National Aquatic Centre, the Labour Party claimed today.
Speaking after the High Court ruled that Dublin Waterworld Ltd (DWL) had deliberately breached the terms of its lease to operate the centre, Labour's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said the ruling meant that the Mr O'Donoghue now had serious questions to answer on the original deal.
Mr Justice Gilligan told the court that although the financial position of Dublin Waterworld had now been regularised, the court was making an order for Campus and Stadium Ireland Development (CSID) Ltd to repossess the €62 million centre.
CSID, the State company which owns the centre, awarded the lease in 2003. It had alleged that, unknown to it, DWL had transferred beneficial ownership of the lease to Limerick businessman Pat Mulcair on April 30th, 2003.
"The Minister must now clarify how Dublin Water World was enabled to enter into a lease and trust arrangement with regard to the Aquatic Centre, with business man Mr Pat Mulcair," she said.
Ms Burton said she had already asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct a review of the handling of the aquatic centre.
She said there have been a number of reports of structural problems with the complex including the fact that treated water consumption is far in excess of what was originally laid down in the design specifications, suggesting leakage problems.
Ms Burton said she had asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct to conduct a review of the handling of this key piece of sports infrastructure.
Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan said the further ruling next Wednesday would decide how CSID would take possession of the centre.
Once the ownership issue was resolved Mr Deenihan called for an independent engineers report on the whole building.
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