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Ballymun costs may double - C&AG
A Government plan to regenerate the Ballymun area of Dublin is set to take twice as long and cost twice as much, the State's spending watchdog said today.
A budget of €442 million was approved in 1999, but the overall cost will be €942 million before inflation, the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) said.
The physical redevelopment will not be completed until 2012 despite an original 2006 end date, the report from C&AG John Purcell found.
Ballymun Regeneration Limited (BRL) today said the original estimates were based on a desktop study because the project had never been attempted before anywhere in Europe.
BRL managing director Ciaran Murray said: "There was no script for this. This was the first time in Europe an attempt was made to rehouse everybody locally and to deal with all the social and economic issues of physical redevelopment."
Mr Murray blamed inflation on most of the cost over-run and said unmapped services and High Court challenges added extra expense.
By the end of 2006, nine of the 36 blocks of flats had been demolished, and half of the planned public housing and 39 per cent of private housing had been completed. A new main street had been substantially finished.
Mr Purcell said better planning and risk management could have reduced some delays in the project. The C&AG also found that commercial and residential land values in Ballymun increased and are about 25 per cent below the north Dublin average.
He claimed that crime and antisocial behaviour were risks to sustaining the regeneration.
PA
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