Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

When will work on the Cork event centre commence? What will the overall cost be? What will be the bill for the private investors and what will be the bill for the taxpayer? Last, but not least, and there will be plenty of people in Cork listening in on this answer, when will that centre be opened?

I remember being a councillor in Cork City Hall in 2014 when we were told that the overall cost would be €50 million and that the State would contribute €20 million. I remember when the Minister, Deputy Coveney, got kitted out in his high-vis and posed for the cameras with then Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny, to turn the sod weeks before the general election in 2016. Nearly eight years on, not a brick has been laid despite €1.5 million having already been spent on the project. It is a Fine Gael fiasco. It is a market fiasco. The Taoiseach might be able to answer at least a few of those questions for us today.

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