THE RDS is to be the location for a 2,000 seat national conference centre provided the facility can be operated without a public subsidy, the Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, announced last night.
Following the abrupt cancellation this week of a competition involving 14 development consortiums for a tender to provide the long delayed conference centre, Mr Kenny said he had asked Bord Failte to "pursue further" a proposal from the RDS.
One of the crucial factors was that the RDS, as a public institution, could qualify for 75 per cent EU funding for the £23 million project much higher than the 50 per cent available to a private sector consortium. Its location in Ballsbridge was also seen as an advantage.
The decision to concentrate on the RDS has major implications. For hoteliers in the area, it promises to be a boon. But it may also undermine the Ogden group's controversial plans for the Phoenix Park Racecourse, which include a conference centre, sports stadium and casino.
This scheme, which has generated 20,000 objections from residents of the area, is to be the subject of a Bord Pleanala public hearing next month.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, is expected to announce his intentions on the casino issue in his Budget speech next Tuesday.
Mr Kenny told The Irish Times that there would be no casino element in the RDS conference centre. "This is a stand alone project. It has nothing to do with any casino", he said. "But the RDS will have to show that it can pay for itself without requiring a subsidy".
He explained that the main reason why the developers' competition had been cancelled was that none of the participants was able to show that it could run a conference centre as a going concern without a public subsidy. "We must move on if we are to meet the EU's 1999 deadline", he said.
His Department said the RDS was being invited to "prepare a specific design submission with detailed financial and operational proposals which will be subject to full assessment" by Bord Failte and an independent management board. There would also be a separate cost/benefit analysis.
In a brief statement, the RDS recalled that it had first submitted plans for a convention centre in Ballsbridge in 1992. It welcomed the Ministers invitation to provide a detailed submission "on how a viable convention centre, attracting maximum EU funding, can be developed at the Ballsbridge site".
But Mr David Andrews, the Fianna Fail spokesman on tourism and trade, said the Minister must explain the basis for his announcement, which appeared to be "another pre emptive strike by a member of the Government in advance of the Budget". He also needed to explain why the competition was scrapped.
One of the developers involved said some large international companies had "entered the competition in good faith at the invitation of the Government and now they are being told to sod off, while the RDS is invited back for a one to one. It's a holy disgrace and seems to suggest we're a banana republic."
