asked the Minister for Finance when it is proposed to commence constructing a new conference centre in Dublin Castle; whether it is intended to publish the building plans and specifications for the centre; whether the centre is to be built by the Office of Public Works or a private contractor; the projected cost of the centre; the projected time of construction; and the reason such a centre is necessary.

Work on a conference centre, which forms part of a major scheme of restoration and development in Dublin Castle will commence next month. For security reasons, the plans and specifications of the centre will not be published. The works will be undertaken by a private firm under contract to the Office of Public Works and tenders for the works have been sought.

The new conference chamber is estimated to cost £2 million. It is estimated that the total cost of the entire restoration and development scheme will be of the order of £21.8 million and the construction element of the scheme is expected to be completed in the spring of 1989.

At the last EC Presidency meeting in Dublin Castle facilities were barely adequate for the ten member Community. The new centre is planned to cater for the expanded EC membership when Ireland next has the Presidency in 1990 and for future Presidencies held in Ireland. It will also provide a purpose-designed facility for conferences with multilingual capabilities for purposes other than EC needs and will be marketed as such by Bord Fáilte.

Despite the implication and the innuendo in the question put down by a Fine Gael Deputy I welcome the approach of the Government in this respect. It is the correct one and I would like to say that for the record.

Thank you, Deputy.