Minister insists Government is 'very much committed' to the Cork Event Centre

The Government remains “very much committed” to the Cork Event Centre, and its almost nine years of delays were not caused by a lack of political will, a Cabinet minister has said.

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke was speaking to reporters in Fermoy yesterday when he was asked by The Echo about the admission this week by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien that the retendering process for the events centre is now expected to take up to 18 months.

Initially, the consortium that had won the tender for the event centre, Bam and Live Nation Gaiety, was expected to benefit from €20m in State funding — which was later increased to €50m and then to €57m.

It was then revealed at a Cork City Council meeting that additional funding would be required for the project, due to inflation, and it emerged last week that because of this, the Attorney General had advised that it must now be retendered.

The sod was turned on the events centre by then taoiseach Enda Kenny 10 days before the 2016 general election.

Fiasco

Mr Burke rejected the suggestion that the event centre was a fiasco for the Government, saying cost inflation meant it was challenging to deliver large-scale public infrastructure.

“I was at Cabinet recently when the initial approval came through, and the commitment was unanimous around the table, so we have to work together to retender the project and obviously see what the cost level is at that point in time, but it wasn’t political will that stopped it progressing,” he said.

He also dismissed the suggestion that Enda Kenny’s premature sod-turning might contain a lesson in believing pre-election promises from politicians.

“Absolutely not, I think it’s very clear that Government has committed to [the event centre], we have a Cabinet decision on it.

“Cabinet is the highest decision in the land that you can take, and the people of Cork can be aware that there is a Cabinet decision taken to retender this project.

“The commitment at Cabinet was taken quite fully and supportive of it,” Mr Burke said.