A report into the Jeanie Johnston project has found that the State never carried out a critical appraisal of the replica Famine ship plan before providing money for it.
The Government halted funding for the initiative last year when it emerged that the project had gone more than €10.5 million over budget. The State provided most of the money but the project also received charitable donations.
The report criticised a number of State bodies for failing to carry out a cost/benefit analysis of the project and for their failure to scrutinise the possible financial risks of supporting the plan.
It also reveals that a committee advising the then minister for arts in 1996, Mr Michael D. Higgins, did not initially recommend the project for State support. However, the Jeanie Johnston initiative was on a secondary list of projects submitted to the minister.
Stating that the plan was poorly conceived, the report said there was no co-ordination between the State bodies that financed the project. It notes that those backing the initiative made separate applications for funding from separate State bodies.
These include Kerry County Council, Shannon Development, the then Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; and the then Department of Marine and Natural Resources.
The report was commissioned last year by the Government after the State spent almost €14 million on a ship that was worth less than €2 million when built. Discussed by the Cabinet last Tuesday, the report was sent last night to members of Kerry County Council.
The report was written by the former secretary general of the Department of Finance, Mr Sean Cromien, and by the accountants Chapman Flood Mazaars.
Their work followed critical appraisals of the project by the Committee of Public Accounts and by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell.
The report said that the planning and management of the initiative was inadequate. The vessel was modelled on the ship that made 16 journeys across the Atlantic carrying emigrants fleeing the Famine. The project was dogged by delays and financial difficulties, but the ship sailed to the US in February to mark the history of its namesake. The ship was built on a greenfield site at Blennerville, near Tralee, in part by a team of FÁS trainees.
