The Office of Public Works is assessing tenders for a new "campus" of State laboratories in Co Kildare to replace the facilities at Abbotstown.
An OPW spokeswoman said yesterday eight tenders had been received from main contractors for the project at Backweston Farm, near Celbridge, which has been estimated to cost €179 million (£141 million).
However, the OPW would have to obtain sanction from the Department of Finance before signing a contract with the successful bidder. Asked whether the project was really necessary, given the current uncertainty over the sports campus plan for Abbotstown, she said: "OPW has been asked to pursue this and that's what we are doing, unless we get instructions to the contrary."
The relocation plan for the State Laboratory and the Department of Agriculture laboratories to Backweston Farm was first mooted in February 2000 - two weeks after the Government decided that a national stadium would be built at Abbotstown. Three days later, the OPW was directed to "commence immediately" preparing plans for new laboratory facilities at Backweston and to find a site in Galway for the Marine Institute laboratory, which is also housed on the 500-acre Abbotstown site.
No further development was to be carried out at Abbotstown and construction work was halted on a £3 million extension to the State Laboratory. A payment of £616,379 in compensation to the contractor was "considered good value for money".
After the move was announced 259 of the 352 staff signed a petition deploring the lack of consultation on what they saw as an "unnecessary and wasteful" move.
Former Abbotstown facilities include the Department of Agriculture's central meat control, veterinary, pesticides, seed testing and dairy science laboratories.
