THE Chief Executive of Cork City Council has made further efforts to quell fears over the delays to the events centre.
Speaking at a meeting of the local authority last night, Ann Doherty said it would be incorrect for anyone to think there was something seriously wrong with the project.
She was responding to concerns raised by councillors and members of the public over the nine-month delay to the start of the project.
Despite City Hall and the government committing €20m of taxpayer’s money towards the project on the Beamish and Crawford site on last Christmas work has yet to begin.
A report to councillors last night said the developers, Bam, and venue operators, Live Nation, are still in negotiations with the discussions currently focused on obtaining the necessary third party funding before the contract can be executed.
Despite the assurances provided by the Chief Executive city councillors said further clarity was needed as the public was deeply concerned about project’s status.
Sinn Féin councillor Thomas Gould said: “The concern now is that time is slipping by. At the time when we approved this funding there was an urgency to get this across the line to have construction started. Yet here we are nine months later and have not seen any progress. We need to have a start date and an end date. We have citizens’ money involved in this.”
Anti Austerity Alliance councillor Mick Barry said: “It’s not good enough that there is no action at this stage. There is a lot of concern out there.”Fianna Fáil councillor Ken O’Flynn said: “We have to get a commitment from the private investors or we will have to go back to the drawing report.”
Fine Gael councillor John Buttimer said: “The commitment of government won’t be there forever. We should be briefed by the project team.”
However closing the debate Ms Doherty said:
“I can assure you that there is nothing serious delaying this project, if there was I would inform you.”“We need to remember this is a project of two steps. The first phase was the procurement process which ended before Christmas with the council and the government committing €20m. Phase two was really about the detail of the contract which has taken longer than anticipated,” she said.
The debate followed comments by Minister Simon Coveney last week who warned that the €20m tax payer funded package would not be on the table forever.