State papers: Two-year dispute over swimming pool at Vatican ambassador's residence
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Diplomats in Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See became involved in a protracted two-year dispute over work on a swimming pool in the ambassador’s residence in Rome during the mid-1990s.
State records released for the first time by the National Archives show the swimming pool at Villa Spada, the ambassador’s grand 17th-century residence on Gianicolo Hill overlooking the Italian capital, became the source of heated correspondence between embassy officials and an Italian firm of architects.
The dispute involved technical failures, rising frustration, and warnings that “legal action” could not be ruled out.
Work on the pool began in January 1993 and was initially scheduled for completion by April that year.
However, the project was plagued by technical setbacks, including a malfunctioning filtration system and corroded pipes linked to decorative fountains featuring bronze snakes on seashells.
Files show that a senior embassy official, Eamon MacAodha, wrote on behalf of the ambassador to the Vatican, Gearóid Ó Broin, to the architects, describing the ongoing technical issues with the pool as a “debacle.”
He complained that the swimming pool was only available three weeks out of every four and that chlorine had to be put in “by hand".
Mr MacAodha noted caustically that the firm had “fixed” the problem but there were still some limits to its use after the repairs.
“What this amounts to, if it is true, is that having spent Lit 51,500,000, (approximately €26,600) not to mention Lit 3,366,000 (€1,700) on architect's fees to ensure that the work had been successfully completed, we are now left with a system which appears to be inoperable for one out of every four weeks,” he wrote.
He also complained that no warning had been given that chlorine would have to be added manually which appeared to undermine the purpose of having an automatic filtration system.
Mr Mac Aodha's letter continued that in the embassy's view "dealings with the company have been unsatisfactory throughout", and that "the debacle with the labelling system is but one example among many illustrating their minimalist approach to this work".
In December 1994, Mr MacAodha notified the firm of architects that the ambassador’s wife was seeking compensation for the substandard work from another firm that had worked on the swimming pool.