John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 31 together.

The inaugural meeting of the inter-agency steering committee established for the redevelopment of the National Concert Hall was held on 4 December 2006, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of my Department. The committee members are the Secretary General of my Department, the chairman of the Office of Public Works, the chairman of the National Concert Hall, the manager of Dublin City Council, a representative of the National Development Finance Agency, and the assistant Secretary General of my Department with responsibility for the arts and culture brief. The director of the National Concert Hall was in attendance at this meeting also. My Department provided the secretary to the committee.

The task of the inter-agency steering committee, in general terms, is to oversee the procurement, negotiation and construction phases of the design, build, finance and maintain PPP for the redevelopment of the National Concert Hall, in compliance with relevant Department of Finance guidelines and in adherence to the terms of the Government decisions germane to the project, and to realise the vision set for the project.

As the inter-agency steering committee is overseeing a deliberative, commercially sensitive PPP process, it would be inappropriate to report on its meetings. The committee's terms of reference require it "to maintain confidential all materials that shall come to be considered by it, having regard to the commercially sensitive aspects of the process, and relevant governing legislation".

As I stated in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 10 of 26 October 2006, contracts for the purchase of the interest of University College Dublin in the Earlsfort Terrace site were executed on 20 September 2006. University College Dublin has already transferred some of its personnel and functions to Belfield and will decant from the remainder in 2007. A lease-back arrangement has been put in place by the OPW with the college until late 2007, by which time the college will have fully vacated the premises.

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