A high-profile private group, including businesswoman Ali Hewson, with which the State has agreed to build a planned National Children’s Science Centre, would have the capability to raise close to €20 million needed to fit out the facility, an independent adjudication has found.
However, it said the proposed centre would face significant operational losses and the Government could have to provide up to €30 million in support over 10 years.
The report found that “the identity, experience and connections” of some of those involved in the organisation promoting the project, such as Hewson and former head of Dublin City University (DCU) Danny O’Hare, “supports the proposition that the applicant will be able to raise the necessary funds for the fit out of the museum, and will be able to continue to raise funds after it opens”.
Hewson is also the wife of U2 frontman Bono and is described in the report as “a very well connected person”. It said she was willing to approach “potential large-scale donors”.
RM Block
The comments are set out in an adjudication report on a dispute between the project’s proposers – the Ireland Children’s Museum Limited (ICML) and the Office of Public Works (OPW) – which was drawn up four years ago but never published. It was provided last Friday by the OPW to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which had warned it would invoke compellability legislation to force its release, if necessary.
The OPW first agreed with ICML in 2003 to build the museum. However, no Government department is willing to take on the project, leaving it stalled.
The report said ICML had, during the adjudication, “emphasised the fundraising experience” of certain members of its board. It said O’Hare had given evidence about raising funds of between €130 million and €150 million for DCU.
“Ms Hewson gave evidence as to her willingness to engage in fundraising and to use her contacts to advance the cause. Both expressed confidence in the ability of the applicant to raise the necessary finance,” the report says.
“Ms Hewson said that the applicant (ICML) would follow the easiest path it can to raise funding, which might include as a first step the use of her connections to enable the applicant to move quickly.”
The report said O’Hare had maintained that “the firm commitments given by Ms Hewson in her witness statement would totally change the fundraising strategy that any board might have”.
“Ms Hewson is a very well-connected person. She said that it was within the scope of the applicant to fund the construction of the exhibits (for the proposed museum), whether at €15 million or €20 million. She spoke about her international connections with people who are philanthropically inclined, and she expressed her willingness to call upon them for this purpose. She said that she would do whatever it takes.”
Background: After 30 years and €1m spend on legal fees, museum no closer
It has been almost 30 years since plans were initially put forward for the establishment of a national science museum for children. The State entered into a legal agreement to build the facility in 2003.
Despite years of argument and more than €1 million being spent on legal fees, no bricks have been laid, and the possibility remains that the matter will end up in the courts.
The key problem is that while the OPW agreed to build the museum – now earmarked for a site adjacent to the National Concert Hall in Dublin 2 – no Government department wants to take on the project.
Without a sponsoring department, and with no funding allocated in the Government’s National Development Plan to meet the projected €70 million construction cost, there is no obvious pathway for the museum to be delivered.
The project has some high-profile supporters including Hewson and Prof Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin.
On Friday, the OPW provided the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee with an unpublished report on a 2022 adjudication process between it and the project’s backers, known as ICML.
The 86-page report found that ICML had the fundraising firepower to deliver on its commitments to raise the money needed to fit out the building when completed. ICML was not, it suggested, a regular fundraising committee.
The report notes Hewson was a “very well connected” person and was prepared to contact wealthy donors for contributions. It notes that former DCU president O’Hare, another key supporter of the museum, had previously raised more than €100 million for the university.
The report states Hewson had maintained it was within the scope of the ICML to fund the construction of the exhibits, whether that be for €15 million or €20 million.
“She spoke about her international connections with people who are philanthropically inclined, and she expressed her willingness to call upon them for this purpose,” the report states. “She said that she would do whatever it takes. She emphasised that some such people had already contributed to a promotional video, and she felt that this indicated that they would follow through with financial support.”
However, the report also said that the operational cost and the bill for of renewal of equipment and facilities would likely exceed its income by a considerable margin, including any amounts raised by fundraising. It suggested there could be shortfall of about 40 per cent.
The report said it was probable that if the facility was built and fitted out in accordance with the current contractual obligations, “the Government will provide sufficient support to enable the museum to operate and to renew the exhibits as required, at least into the foreseeable future”.
The adjudication report reveals that in February 2018 the then taoiseach Leo Varadkar directed that the project was to proceed under the auspices of the Department of Culture, and that it was to prepare a memorandum for the government.
It said the Department of Public Expenditure subsequently decided it was not appropriate to bring forward such a proposal to cabinet and the then minister for culture decided in 2019 to hold off on moving to construction of the museum pending an evaluation of a number of issues.
However, the adjudication report notes: “It remains of some significance that no political figure has ever expressed opposition to the idea of the museum.”
