The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism has said that the State will not be paying the €1 million-plus bill for storm repairs to the National Aquatic Centre, which reopened yesterday after a five-month closure.
The roof of the €63 million building at Abbotstown, Co Dublin was badly damaged during freak weather conditions on New Year's Day and it has been closed since.
Liam Bohan, one of the directors of Dublin Waterworld, the private company that has the contract to operate the facility, said it had lost between €2.5 million and €3 million during the closure. He said that Campus Stadium Ireland Development (CSID), the State company which is responsible for the operation of the site, had overseen the repair work.
He did not know who would be paying for the repairs, but said that his company had no responsibility as it was the tenant and had paid insurance. Mr Bohan criticised the delay in reopening the facility and the lack of detail as to how the building came to be so badly damaged.
"I know there were storms there, but one would imagine that a building costing €63 million with all the checks and everything else that must have been done by people, would be secure," he said on RTÉ radio yesterday. "We, as the operators, have suffered severely from this."
A spokesman for the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism said the details of who would be paying for the repairs was a matter for CSID. There was no question of the taxpayer footing the bill through CSID, he said.
Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue commissioned an independent report on the storm damage at a cost of €17,588.50, but has so far refused to publish the findings.
Speaking in the Dáil last week he said there were "legal, contractual and financial issues that must be considered in light of the report and, therefore, it must remain confidential at this time".