CELEBRITY GARDENER Diarmuid Gavin complained of a “calamitous situation” with Cork City Council over funding for his gold-medal winning entry in the Chelsea Flower Show just a month before the event.
A panicked Gavin lobbied former PD minister Liz O’Donnell to intervene on his behalf with the council, which along with Fáilte Ireland, is providing the funding for the Sky Garden – estimated by Gavin to cost €2.3 million.
He was commissioned by the council early last year to design the garden which will go on permanent display in the Mardyke area in Cork this summer following its successful introduction at Chelsea.
In an e-mail sent on Good Friday, just 10 days before workmen were supposed to start the construction of the garden, he complained of “non-communication and the rudeness and the lack of funds” on the council’s part.
He also said he was personally liable for hundreds of thousands of pounds in costs and that his reputation at Chelsea would be “gone forever” if the garden did not materialise. Ms O’Donnell forwarded the e-mail to the Cork-based Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.
Ms O’Donnell said she was approached by the agent Noel Kelly who acts for both of them to see if she could help out and had no other involvement.
Council director of corporate affairs Valerie O’Sullivan said yesterday the €2.3 million figure was “considerably overstated”, and the final bill, which has not been completed, would be less than €2 million.
The council is administering the budget on behalf of Bord Fáilte which will provide at least 75 per cent of the funds.
“The final budget has not been agreed yet. We have paid a small proportion over so that Chelsea could happen. As with any contract we will pay on a phased basis as we do with any other contract,” she explained. The council will pay for the transportation and installation of the garden in the city.
“The amount of resources to keep this on track is more than on any other project I had been involved in. It was a huge commitment,” she said, adding Mr Gavin did not understand how to deal with public bodies and had not sent in invoices until late into the project.
Both Bord Fáilte and the council defended the cost of the project saying it would attract visitors to the city.
Local Fine Gael Cllr Des Cahill warned the cost of the project had not been accounted for in the council’s budget this year and he said paying for it could put other projects such as the Blackrock Village Regeneration Scheme and the replacement of the marina slipway in jeopardy.“The net loss of this will be key projects which we had already agreed on and were awaiting funding that may now be shelved,” he said.
Attempts to contact Gavin yesterday were unsuccessful.
