A shortfall of €634,870 on the capital cost of the aquatic and leisure centre under construction at Abbotstown, Co Dublin, is being met from the public purse, The Irish Times has learned.
It was also learned that the Department of Finance has given approval to the Office of Public Works to enter into a contract for new State laboratories in Co Kildare, to replace the existing facilities in Abbotstown, at an overall cost of €199 million.
Tenders for this project, at Backweston Farm, near Celbridge, which is located in the North Kildare constituency of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, are still being assessed by the OPW.
A decision on the successful bidder is expected shortly.
In the case of the aquatic and leisure centre, the Government decision to proceed with it last spring was based on an Exchequer investment of £48.4 million (€61.5 million).
However, the actual cost has since been fixed at £48.9 million (€62.1 million) - hence the shortfall.
The Rohcon-Waterworld consortium which successfully bid for the contract to build it had offered to contribute £500,000 (€634,870) towards the cost - coincidentally the same sum as the shortfall - but this will not be paid over until after the complex is completed.
Under a project agreement signed last month with Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), the consortium will only make its contribution when the lease is signed.
In the meantime, CSID is paying an equivalent sum to the consortium to meet the shortfall.
Construction work started last May on the aquatic and leisure centre, to be known as The Pool at Abbotstown, and it is meant to be completed by the end of November so that it can stage at least one competition to show that it is fit to host the Special Olympics in June 2003.
Apart from a 50-metre pool, with seating for 2,500 spectators, the aquatic and leisure centre will have a 1,000 sq metre leisure pool, a 500 sq metre gym and 1,350 sq metres of catering facilities. However, it does not include a warm-up pool for competing athletes.
When the project was first mooted, PricewaterhouseCoopers advised CSID that it should be procured by a design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) contract, in anticipation that the successful bidder would make a significant contribution to its capital cost.
A "confidential report" by PwC anticipated a private sector contribution ranging between £14.5 million (€18.4 million) and £29 million (€36.8 million).
In the event, the amount actually offered by Rohcon-Waterworld was just £500,000, or 1 per cent of the cost.
Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd has declined to confirm this figure, describing it as "commercially sensitive".
All it would say was that Rohcon-Waterworld had offered "a combination of cash and a significant percentage of free time for use by elite athletes".
The revelation casts further doubt over the anticipated contribution of £150 million from the private sector towards the cost of providing an 80,000-seat national stadium, 15,000-seat indoor arena, velodrome, golf academy, tennis centre and other facilities at Abbotstown.
An independent consultancy study by High Point Rendel, published at the end of January, also queried whether such a level of private sector finance was realistic and, as a result, suggested there was not much point in CSID pursuing the DBFOM procurement method.
It is understood that the Office of Public Works is currently preparing a report for the Government on the implications of the consultants' findings and that this is likely to propose that a more straightforward construction management approach should be adopted.
The OPW's report is also expected to recommend that CSID's management structure should be reorganised.
This would involve a full-time chief executive replacing the current arrangement whereby executive services are supplied on a consultancy basis by Magahy and Company.
