The Department of Finance has expressed strong concern that Government decisions on the national stadium project have been taken in breach of Cabinet procedures, and that costs are in danger of rising dramatically.
Documents released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act show repeated warnings from senior officials concerning control of spending on the project.
It must be acknowledged that this is a typical stance by the Department, charged as it is with monitoring and overseeing expenditure. As one Opposition source put it yesterday, "When a project is being driven politically, as this one is, the Department sees its function as being to question and oppose things."
However, the level and strength of the Department's complaints appear to exceed the norm. The estimated cost has risen from £281 million in January to £550 million in the autumn, and just last month the Department warned Mr Ahern it would increase still further.
Last February, in the most strongly worded complaint, the Department asserted that the way in which the Taoiseach's Department had obtained Cabinet approval for the project was in breach of Cabinet procedures.
The Second Secretary, Mr Bob Curran, complained that the Department had not been shown the memorandum for Government on the matter in advance, "despite the very significant costs of the project".
In the stinging letter to the secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Paddy Teahon - who now chairs the stadium development company - Mr Curran expressed concern at press reports that a 50-metre indoor swimming pool was now to be incorporated in the project.
This was not in the Government decision of January 25th, he said, and was reported to add between £15 million and £20 million to the cost of the project.
He added that he now understood that the State laboratories at Abbotstown were to be relocated "and that these relocation costs could amount to in excess of £100 million". He asked for a memorandum to be sent to his Department giving a full and up-to-date estimate of the project's total costs.
"This Department has, as you know, striven for many years, with some success, to have capital projects properly costed and assessed before they are decided upon," he said in the February 4th letter.
Just four days later, however, Mr Curran adopted a markedly more conciliatory tone in another letter to Mr Teahon. He said his concerns had now "largely been addressed". He also acknowledged that his Department had been represented on the Stadium Steering Committee, whose recommendations had set the context of the Government decision about which he had complained.
However, his initial concerns about cost were more than borne out. In July, according to correspondence released, the capital cost of the swimming pool complex was put at £48 million rather than the initial £15 million to £20 million estimated by Mr Curran.
At the end of November the estimated cost of relocating the agriculture, state and marine laboratories at Abbotstown was raised from £90 million to £157 million.
And, with the Government raising its estimated total cost from £281 million in January to £550 million, there was a warning from Finance of still further increase.
Noting that the £157 million relocation figure included only limited allowance for inflation, a senior official wrote to Mr Ahern's Department: "You may wish to note this in connection with the Stadium project. The increase in construction cost seems to me to suggest that a close look may need to be taken at the costings for the project as a whole."
The tone throughout the letters from the Department of Finance betrays a concern that costs may rise without proper controls and procedures being applied. "We have responsibilities that we must fulfil," said Mr Curran in a letter to Mr Ahern's Department in July.
On July 7th Mr Curran wrote to Mr Ahern's Department to express concern about the procedures in submitting the aquatic centre project to Government. The project was approved five days later, at an estimated capital cost of £48 million, some £30 million of which is to be provided by the Exchequer. Mr Curran raised the need for a rigorous evaluation of the estimated operating costs and revenue for the centre.
Last month Mr Curran again expressed concern at "the rate at which construction costs are escalating". However, the architectural competition for designs to build the entire project has begun.