Abandoned projects cost €85 million

A REPORT published by the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) before Christmas has called for a review of how a massive €85 million was spent on two Northside projects that were eventually abandoned.

The project to build a new National Paediatric Hospital at the Mater Hospital was abandoned in 2012 and led to a write-off of €35.5 million while €50 million was spent on the site for a new prison for Dublin at Thornton in North County Dublin.

Chairman of the Committee, John Mc Guinness TD, said these were the two

?¯ biggest infrastructure proposals approved by the Government in the years prior to the economic collapse.

“While a lot of taxpayers money has gone into the two projects, the return has been negligible,” he added.

“In the case of the National Paediatric Tertiary Hospital, five years’ work went into bringing a project to planning stage and when planning permission was refused, the project was thrown completely off-course.”

Dublin Central TD, Joe Costello (Lab), who’s also a member of the PAC, raised these concerns at a recent meeting.

“The planning application was going to drive a coach and four through the local area plan and the Dublin City Development Plan,” he said.

“It was completely out of character with the city and it would tower over the historical centre of Dublin.” 

Deputy Mc Guinness said the Mater planning application adopted a high-risk strategy and that when it failed to get approval there was no plan B.

“We need to have a full review of that project as otherwise there is a chance that the same mistakes will be made again and that can’t happen,” he added.

The PAC also says there’s a doubt as to the future use of Thornton Hall on which €50 million has been spent. The site is worth a fraction of what was paid for it and there are no plans to develop a prison now.