‘Dead Zoo’ not to reopen until the 2030s

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SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman on Newstalk with Kea.

Shane Colman (1:08)

We're joined now by John Brady, chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee. John, I do want to talk to you about the Natural History Museum.

Did you want to comment? I don't know if you were able to hear what Declan had to say there. Did you want to comment on that?

John Brady (1:25)

I didn't catch it all.

I'm not sure I'd be in the best position now to comment on it. Unfortunately, Shane.

Shane Colman (1:33)

OK, fair enough.

We'll move on. How, in the name of God, John, is the Natural History Museum, which closed in 2024, how is it not going to reopen until well into the 2030s? That seems extraordinary.

John Brady (1:54)

Yeah, absolutely extraordinary. And this is on foot of correspondence we received at the Public Accounts Committee today, Shane, and quite concerningly, we got a breakdown of expenditure to date on some of the work that's being carried out in the Natural History Museum. They lay out a bit of a timeline as to when they expect to see it open. It's closed now for the last two years.

And if things go according to their own timeline, the necessary works contained on the fairly old building, it has to be said, no one's arguing it doesn't need work. But they're saying work is not due to commence until quarter four of 2029 or quarter one of 2030 They're saying the work is estimated to take about 32 months to complete and then a further 12 months to refit out the, with the exhibits, et cetera. So if that timeline was to follow according to plans, we know with the best laid intentions, particularly when it comes to the OPW, who are renowned for going both over the budget and exceeding timelines, it's going to be 2034 at the earliest that we see this. Very valuable. I think it's a resource, it's a museum that's held dearly by so many people over so many years, and I don't think that's acceptable.

And 3.6 million has been spent on the project, both in terms of decanting some of the, I suppose, exhibits that had been housed within the museum and putting them into storage alongside other investigative works and design teams. But we don't have a final cost as to how much it's actually going to cost.

Shane Colman (3:54)

Look, I know it's a simplistic comparison, but I'm going to give it anyway. It took four years to build the Ardna Crusher power station 100 years ago.

How can it take this long? I'm sorry, I know you're not responsible, but I'm just curious for your day. How, why is it taking so long to refurbish the museum?

John Brady (4:15)

Well, look, they've given it, and I'm certainly not the best positioned to give those answers.

Shane Colman (4:22)

No, I accept that. You're not an architect, you're not a... Yeah, I accept that.

John Brady (4:27)

No, we put those questions back to the OPW because it is deeply concerning. And look, it's not lost on people, it's certainly not lost on me that it closed for a three year period back in 2007 And also when, I suppose, because of the age of the building at that stage, a section of a stairwell collapsed. And I think there was a number of people injured in that. Now, during that three year period in which it was closed, it had been planned to bring forward a comprehensive refurbishment plan on the museum. And that was expected to cost 15 million. Now, ultimately, that stopped, it didn't proceed. I think half a million had been spent on the stairwell. But the question has to be asked, is that what planning had been done previously? What costs had been incurred? Looking at the overall refurbishment back in 2007, that ultimately was stopped. But here we are again, nearly 20 years later, we're looking at this building. Now, we don't have a line of sight as to the final costs. The OPW don't know those at this stage.