After three years, we are no closer to knowing precisely why a €62 million State contract for building and running the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) was awarded to a British shelf company with assets of £4 sterling.
That is bad enough. But we now find that the Irish management of the Centre was allowed to get into such serious rent and Vat arrears that the State is attempting to repossess the facility through the Courts. This project was the brainchild of the Taoiseach. The contract was prepared on his watch. He has a duty to tell the taxpayers who are funding this debacle what has been going on.
Details of the financial miscalculations surrounding the grandiose Abbotstown project, or the "Bertie Bowl" as it became known, first came to light through use of the Freedom of Information Act. The Government has since blocked that source of information by changing the legislation. In 2002, however, this newspaper revealed controversial details concerning Waterworld UK, the British company that was granted the NAC contract, in association with the construction firm Rohcon and a Tralee-connected company, Dublin Waterworld. An investigation by the then attorney general, Michael McDowell, was highly critical of the tendering process and found the parent company may not have met the bid requirements. Waterworld UK was quickly wound up. A former general secretary of the Taoiseach's Department, Mr Paddy Teahon, resigned as executive chairman of Campus Stadium Ireland Development, the State company that awarded the contract. In spite of that, Dublin Waterworld retained the right to run the centre, with an estimated profit of €1.9 million a year.
In the High Court, last Monday, Mr Justice Peter Kelly found it astonishing that such a valuable State asset had been leased to a company with a share capital of €127 and no fixed assets. He also found it difficult to understand how Dublin Waterworld could have paid €4.5 million to a subsidiary company for unspecified services at a time when it owed rent to the State amounting to some €1 million. For its part, Dublin Waterworld has claimed it suffered financial loss when the roof of the centre blew off earlier this year, causing the facility to close, and arising from other serious construction faults.
Further details are likely to emerge when the State resumes its efforts to repossess its property next month. There are many unanswered questions. Poor commercial decisions were clearly taken. It is part of a pattern of financial waste, shoddy management and worse that has infected this Government. The taxpayer deserves better. Questions of political accountability arise.