Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Feb 1998

Vol. 487 No. 1

Written Answers. - National Conference Centre.

John Bruton

Question:

72 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the proposals, if any, he has to decommit funds of 33 million ECU allocated for the national conference centre in accordance with Question No. 48 of 19 November 1997; the correspondence, if any, he has had with the European Commission in this regard; if he will publish this correspondence; the implications of these savings or decommitting of funds for potential beneficiaries of the expenditure; when the Community Support Framework monitoring committee will meet to discuss this matter; the criteria he will use in making this decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22702/97]

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation (Dr. McDaid)

I have no proposals to decommit the funds allocated towards the development of a national conference centre under the Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-99. As the Deputy will be aware, a new tender procedure for a national conference centre was initiated last year and is being organised by Bord Fáilte under the aegis of the independent management board for product development. The procedure is being conducted in full compliance with EU Council Directive 93/37/EEC, concerning the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts.

The full tender procedure notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 13 September 1997. The notice was also published in the Irish daily newspapers on 16 September. It invited applicants to submit requests to participate in the tender procedure by 5 p.m. on Monday, 20 October. Bord Fáilte received 12 responses within the deadline set for receipt of applications to tender. On 31 October 1997, invitation to tender documentation was dispatched by Bord Fáilte to seven qualified applicants, six of whom confirmed their intentions to submit full tenders before the deadline set, 14 November. The closing deadline for receipt of tenders was at 5 p.m. on Monday 2 February. Bord Fáilte received full tender submissions from five consortia and has now commenced its assessment of these submissions. Bord Fáilte and the management board have estimated that it will be late March before their deliberations will be completed.

The mid-term review package of the Communty Support Framework for Ireland, CSF, established a reserve list of projects in respect of which consideration will be given to decommitting funds at the 1998 mid-year meeting of the CSF monitoring committee. The package indicated that if it could be proven, at that time, that sufficient progress had been achieved to secure the likely completion of the projects within the existing agreed time scales, all or part of the funds allocated would be decommitted. It was further indicated that national roads would be one of the main priorities in the consideration of the usage of any ERD funds which might become available from this exercise. The national conference centre is on the reserve list.

The meeting of the CSF monitoring committee at which the matter will be addressed is scheduled for 25 June 1998. In preparation for that meeting, my Department will, following full consideration of the matter by the monitoring committee of the operational programme for tourism, forward a detailed report on progress up to then to establish the national conference centre.