A Dublin City Council boss has denied "blackmailing" councillors into signing off on plans for a water based activity centre on the quays of the Liffey.
Two new buildings on Custom House Quay in the city centre will be constructed which will house the activity centre. Water activities such as kayaking and rowing as well as water tours are planned to take place at the centre.
The Dublin Docklands Development Authority quayside buildings will be demolished to facilitate the project. The estimated cost of the project is €18m, of which €7m will be provided by the National Transport Authority. The Council’s portion of the cost will be funded from development levies.
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Plans for the activity centre were presented for approval to the full council meeting on Monday night despite a previous meeting of the North Central Area agreeing more questions needed to be answered. The Executive's report to the full council meeting warned the current procurement process would have to be abandoned - and the project delayed - if it went back to the Central Area Committee based on "comments" from local councillors.
The report read: "It is considered unlikely, given the comments made by members at the March Central Area Committee that they will be in a position to make a decision on the project at the April or subsequent Area Committee meeting. This would result in the Council having to abandon the current procurement process as we would not be able to award a contract.
Independent Councillors Nial Ring and Christy Burke accused the executive of "blackmailing" the council into agreeing to the plans by effectively warning it won't happen if they don't do so. However, Assistant Chief Executive with responsibility for planning Richard Shakespeare denied the allegations.
He told the meeting: "In relation to Councillor Burke, at no point was there any attempt from the Executive to blackmail anybody. This is our third attempt to try to get something going here.
"From our perspective, I think we would be starting to lose the confidence of the construction sector if we chop and change. The pool of contractors that are actually tendering for public works like this is small enough.
"If we lose those, we then don't get a competitive process and we are not going to get value for money."
Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam raised concerns about similarities between the project and the failed White Water Rafting Centre on George's Dock. Mr Shakespeare said: "The White Water Rafting proposal is dead in the water if you pardon the pun. It is dead in the white water."
The Assistant Chief Executive added: "At no point did I or members of the area management team believe that we were insulting the area councillors. If that is what the area councillors are taking, I do apologise for that."
One Councillor was not impressed by the protests of their colleagues. "What a bizarre waste of time", they told Dublin Live.
A motion to defer the report was defeated by a large majority - meaning the project will go ahead. There were 11 Cllrs in favour, 44 against and 1 abstention on the vote.
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