The Irish Independent Newspaper has exposed millions in wasted arts spending. They report today that the Irish state spent almost 2.5 million euro planning a revamp of the National Concert Hall that won’t go ahead, and another 400,000 on consultations on whether the Abbey Theatre should move to a new site in Dublin city.

The department of tourism, culture and sport had originally planned to spend up to 350 million euro on redevelopments for both institutions, but a spokesperson confirmed that the projects had been shelved indefinitely as a result of the financial crisis. The money, however, would not be wasted, the spokesperson told the independent, saying: “Since 2007 some €2.4m has been spent by the National Development Finance Agency, the Office of Public Works and the NCH on technical, legal and financial advice for the project. A significant amount of that advice was site specific and remains relevant to the concert hall and any future development at the site.”