The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell has said that the information provided to the Government before it made its decision to build Campus Ireland in July 2000 was open to considerable doubts over its reliability.
In addition, Mr Purcell said in his address to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Campus Ireland, the public-private partnership arrangement that the Government had envisaged to finance the project had never emerged.
This, he said, was abundantly clear in the awarding of the contract for the Aquatic Centre on the site which was IR£18 million more expensive than the Government had originally been lead to believe.
In the competition for the project, he said, the consortium that had scored highest in the under the design and maintenance elements of the proposals was also the lowest in terms of price by virtue of the fact that the operator of the site would make a IR£500,000 contribution to the project upon the granting of the 30 year lease.
In effect, Mr Purcell said, all risk was taken away from the private company involved in the project the Government was left to carry it all.
"In July, Mr Purcell said, "the Government agreed to the development of such a centre on the site and provided a capital grant of up to IR30 million towards its cost.
"However when the bids came in and were assessed it became clear that the Exchequer would have to fully meet the capital costs - this was computed at £48.4 million - a figure that appeared in the report from the management consultants for the overall project.
"The fact that the bids reflected a far higher cost to the exchequer than had been envisaged in my opinion raises doubts about the reliability of the information underpinning the July 200 decision of the Government."
Mr Paddy Teahon, Chairman and Chief Executive of Campus Ireland, who arrived at the PAC at 4pm, reiterated his position that he would not resign and had not been asked to by the Taoiseach.
Mr Teahon is currently addressing the PAC and is expected to make a statement later this evening.
Earlier today he said he regretted not using the word "dormant" to describe Waterworld UK, the London-registered shelf company which signed heads of agreement in February 2001 to operate the centre at Abbotstown, Dublin.
The PAC is also expected to discuss the Attorney General’s report on the project.
However, Ms Harney, said her concerns were "heightened" by Mr McDowell's draft, which runs to 40 pages with 20 pages of annexes. The comment suggests that questions surrounding the award of the contract to operate the centre, which will be Europe's largest, were not fully resolved by the investigation.