TDs query funding of Punchestown equestrian centre

The controversy over the Punchestown Agricultural and Equestrian Event Centre increased today after a delegation of TDs said a number of questions on the funding of the facility need to be answered.

Seven members of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee visited Punchestown Race Course in Co Kildare today to inspect the facilities, which were paid for with €14.8 million of public money.

They were committee chairman Mr John Perry, Mr Michael Noonan and Mr Paul Connaughton (Fine Gael); Mr John McGuinness, Mr Batt O'Keeffe and Mr John Curran (Fianna Fáil); and the Green Party's Mr Dan Boyle.

The TDs held meetings with the management of the centre, seeking details of their business plan, marketing strategy and efforts to secure value for money.

Mr Noonan said the facility appeared to have been professionally constructed and he was satisfied that the new management were competent and would ensure the venture is profitable. "Anything that costs €15 million should be fairly impressive when you come to view it," he said.

But he said there still remained a number of questions to be answered, which the new managers were unable to address.

"We have to examine whether fraud took place, were proper procedures followed for spending public money and was there value for money," he said. The former Fine Gael leader said the construction costs were "totally out of proportion" with comparable industrial facilities.

"We have to continually probe the basis for the decision," the Limerick TD said.

Mr John McGuinness said the Public Accounts Committee would be meeting over the next few days to discuss the findings of their visit.

Yesterday in the Dáil, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in whose constituency the centre is situated, and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, strongly defended the funding of the project in the face of Opposition criticism.

Mr McCreevy said the project and its funding had been the subject of careful appraisal within the Department of Agriculture and Food and the funding had also been before deputies for consideration on no less than eight separate occasions between June 2000 and June 2003. "Nobody can argue that the provision of funding for the centre was not open and transparent," he said.