Elaine Loughlin: Frustration as Cork Events Centre hit by further delays

Despite multiple promises that the Government would decide whether a further tranche of funding will be released to finally get the project out of the ground, the issue was not on the agenda at the final Cabinet meeting of the summer.

With the clock now ticking down to a general election, the project, which must now seem more like a pipe dream to most Corkonians, may go through its third Government before construction gets underway.

The 6,000-capacity events centre was first promised back in 2014 when a tender for €20 million of State aid was awarded to Bam Property and Live Nation.

Just 10 days out from the general election in 2016, then Taoiseach Enda Kenny made it down to Cork with good news on what was a grey enough day in the city. Turning the sod, he posed alongside the developers and then Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney as well as then Tánaiste Joan Burton.

At that stage, the historic former Beamish and Crawford Brewery site was acquired from Heineken, and the multipurpose venue was on track to host concerts and conferences by 2018.

Setbacks

But the project has been mired in controversy, setbacks and cost overruns since.

An initial €20m State aid package to develop land on South Main Street was on offer, but that has increased over the years. The financial assistance stood at €57m last year before the latest top-up was requested.

A meeting of Cork City Council last December heard that inflation had again pushed up the overall price of the project.

Following a detailed design process by Bam late last year, Cork City Council prepared and submitted a report to the Department of Housing on the additional costs required to build the venue.

While the exact amount has not been made public, it is understood the figure requested is around €30m, bringing the overall amount of State funding, if approved, to almost €90m.

It’s a significant uplift in public funding and ministers should rightly be cautious when opening the purse strings for any project.

Some have suggested that the Government is acutely aware of the optics of letting the price spiral before the foundations are even dug.

Costly lessons have been learned from the National Children’s Hospital, which Bam is also involved in.

It does, however, cost money to stand still.

By last year almost €1.5m of public money had been spent on the stalled project, most of that going towards legal and management consultancy fees, with two firms alone accounting for almost €1m of the spend.

Support

But the Cork Events Centre has not been without strong backers, with three Cork ministers around the Cabinet table to fight for the development of a facility that will provide a massive employment, tourism and economic boost to the city.

However, with Simon Coveney leaving politics at the next election and Michael McGrath off to Europe, just Michéal Martin remains.

It had been strongly briefed both privately and publicly that Government approval on a financial way forward would be obtained before the summer break.

As recently as the end of June, the outgoing Finance Minister McGrath said the Department was carrying out their own due diligence as the Government had to be satisfied in relation to “certain aspects” of the project to ensure it is fully compliant with all of the “normal rules and procedures that you would expect”.

But he remained adamant that ministers would be in a position to make a decision on the matter before the final Cabinet meeting of the term.

“I am very confident that Government will make a decision very shortly. I do expect a decision in the next few weeks — I would anticipate in July,” McGrath said.

That did not happen and instead the decision has been extended out to an unknown date, hopefully in the autumn.

Cork Chamber, the Cork Business Association, the Cork branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland in Cork, and the Restaurants Association of Ireland have all expressed frustration that the “game-changing” facility that could attract an annual attendance of around 500,000 people is no closer to commencing than it was this time last year, or the year before for that matter.

When pressed on why the funding was not discussed at the final Cabinet meeting, Martin said high-level Government discussions have been happening, but “further engagement” is required.

“As a member of this Government we have to deal with the issue that’s on the table before us. We will bring this to a conclusion.”

He cited inflation as one of the factors creating a challenge around the centre. While not committing to a timeline, Martin said he would work to see the situation resolved “as quickly as we can”.

“I’m as frustrated as many people are in terms of how this issue has dragged on for many, many years.”

Being treated like fools, was how another Cork TD, Mick Barry, put it.

Certainly Corkonians must feel like someone is having a laugh at their expense as they continue to fork out for transport and accommodation to get them to concerts in Dublin which could be taking place in Cork if the facility to hold them was built as promised.

No solid or convincing reason for pushing out the Cabinet’s funding decision has yet been provided, but to quote Johnny Logan, in the scheme of delays what’s another year?