Dublin City Council has so far paid €655,000 to consultants solely for consultants’ design work on new tearooms in Merrion Square Park, not including the actual construction of the rooms.
According to a Government report, “the project is not now fully compliant with council, national and EU procurement regulations”.
The café space, which will cover 362 square metres, is set to feature an indoor dining room, a foyer, an outdoor terrace, a kitchen, staff facilities, toilets, external lighting, alterations to an existing fence, and steps to the nearby playground, as well as various related internal and external areas. The project commenced in 2015, but construction only began in January of this year.
The structure will be situated beside the existing perimeter path, close to the playground and the Oscar Wilde memorial statue.
However, according to an audit report prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in September, €655,000 has been spent just on consultants for the project so far.
“Consultant architects were procured and appointed in 2015 to develop a design for the tea rooms at a cost of €246k (incl. VAT),” the report reads.
“Costs to date spent on this consultant amount to €655k (incl. VAT). This represents an extension of 166% on the original contract.”
The audit report adds: “This is not in compliance with Council, national and EU procurement regulations.”
However, the report later states that the design costs are “broadly in line” with industry costs.
“Note that the complete fee for all design team stages and disciplines, including Assigned Certifier, is a fee percentage of approximately 13.8% of total construction cost, which is broadly in line with current industry design team fees scale for a building of this value and complexity,” the paper says.
The document goes on to say that the construction contractor was tendered in 2022 at a cost of €4.6 million, which includes VAT, and that construction costs to date amount to €921,000.
“It is currently under construction with an expected completion date of Q4 2025,” the report notes.
Dublin City Council has also employed property consultants Colliers to find a tenant for the property, who in turn note that the project was designed by “award-winning architects” Bucholz McEvoy.
“The premises are being made available under a new 10-year lease, which will include a rent review at Year 5,” Colliers said in a statement.
According to the Department of Local Government’s report, the approved budget for the project is €6.1 million, and this is “funded by development contribution levies.”
The Chief Executive of Dublin City Council notes that “this project has been subject to significant delays over the past 10 year from preliminary design to construction during a period of exceptionally high building inflation.”
The main reasons for this, he says, include an “increase in design scope associated with a higher value building”; a “4 year delay to the design process including 3 year delay due to COVID”; and a “1 year delay as a result of CRES capital projects being put on hold.”
However, the document notes that the initial contract “was awarded from a valid multi-party framework of architect led integrated design team in 2015 and was compliant with public procurement.”
However, it acknowledged that “the project is not now fully compliant with council, national and EU procurement regulations”.