The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue yesterday welcomed tenders by two groups for the provision of a National Conference Centre in Dublin as the deadline for submissions closed.

The Anna Livia Consortium and the Spencer Dock International Conference Centre Consortium are now in competition to build the centre and a winner will be chosen by the Office of Public Works and the Department later this summer. A full contract will be awarded before the end of the year, subject to approval by the Government.

A third bidder, the Michael McNamara group, withdrew from the competition in March.

The Anna Livia Consortium, led by Bennet Construction, is proposing to build the centre on a site close to the Point Depot and the Port Tunnel in the Dublin docklands. The site is owned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

The Spencer Dock consortium is led by Treasury Holdings and proposes building the centre on Spencer Dock. While the conference centre is expected to be a loss-making venture, the lands surrounding the centre will become hugely attractive in terms of retail and office development. The Irish Hotels Federation estimates that the 2,000-seat centre could attract as many as 50,000 extra visitors and generate business worth €60 million a year. Under the current proposals, it should be complete by 2007.