Clare County Council has paid more than €1 million in fees to consultants on its stalled plan to build a new visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher, it emerged yesterday.
The proposal to build the €27 million centre is in the balance due to a Government cap on local authority borrowing which is preventing the cash-strapped council from raising the necessary €15 million to qualify for Fáilte Ireland grant aid.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act yesterday show that the architects of the centre, Cork firm O'Riordan Staehli, has received €408,191 to date. The company received substantial fees in eight of the 11 years since 1993, receiving €86,962 in 2001 and €70,761 in 2002, when the visitor centre was going through the planning process.
Environmental consultants have also benefited from the project. They include Parkman Teoranta which received €122,409, Brady Shipman Martin which received €94,649, and Tourism Development International which received €56,567.
The figures also show that a model-maker was paid €44,753 for producing displays and models of the new centre over the 12-year period.
Clare Green Party spokesman, Mr Brian Meaney, yesterday questioned the scale of payments to the various consultants involved.
"With no work yet on site, they do not represent value for money," he said.
He blamed Shannon Development for the massive bill which the county council had been left with. "If the centre had gone ahead as agreed in the early 1990s on a joint venture basis between the council and Shannon Development, consultant costs would have been kept below €150,000."
