Wicklow Sinn Féin TD and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), John Brady has today challenged representatives of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) at the committee, on their failure to protect the taxpayer investment and progress the Greystones Media Campus project.
ISIF invested €24 million into the project and during today’s PAC hearing they confirmed that approximately €1.8 million has already been expended, despite no meaningful progress being made.
Speaking after the meeting, Teachta Brady said:
“Today’s hearing laid bare the extraordinary failure of ISIF, the IDA and other parties to make any meaningful progress on the Greystones Media Campus despite years of commitments, announcements and public expectation.
“It is now more than four years since the project was announced – a €300 million media campus led by Hackman Capital on land controlled by the IDA, with the potential to create 450 construction jobs and up to 1,500 permanent jobs at the 44-acre film and television production site.
“ISIF invested €24 million of Irish taxpayers’ money into this project on the basis of increasing global demand for film studio infrastructure and Wicklow’s attractiveness as a location for film and television production, particularly given the success of the studios already operating within the county.
“Yet despite all of this potential, today we learned that €1.8 million of ISIF’s investment has already been spent with no visible progress, no clear delivery timeline and no satisfactory explanation as to what exactly this money has been spent on.
“People are entitled to ask what on earth €1.8 million has actually delivered.
“At today's meeting, I challenged ISIF representatives directly on their complete failure to protect the taxpayer investment and failure to work with Hackman Capital and the IDA to advance this project.
“The responses provided were deeply unsatisfactory and failed to provide any confidence that there is either urgency or a credible strategy to finally move this project forward.
“The government need to be absolutely clear here — they have a responsibility to the Irish taxpayer and to the people of Wicklow to deliver on this.
“We cannot afford to allow projects like the Greystones Media Campus to collapse through inertia, delay and lack of leadership.
“The project needs to be delivered. We need to see direct government intervention to get this project back on track. Wicklow needs investment in jobs, investment in infrastructure and investment in the economic future of our communities.
“After today’s PAC hearing, serious questions remain.
“The people of Wicklow deserve transparency, accountability and delivery.”
Ends