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The £7m restoration of a tender ship that ferried passengers on board the doomed Titanic may not be finished in time for the centenary of its launch, an official report warns today.

The charitable trust responsible for refitting the derelict SS Nomadic, known as Titanic’s ‘little sister’, is also struggling to meet a fundraising target of £5m by this autumn — having received less than £1.4m by the start of the year.

It was intended the vessel would be open to the public in Belfast's docklands ahead of the much-hyped 100th anniversary of the day the Titanic rolled down the slipway at Harland and Wolff in May, 1911. But auditors today cast doubt on whether the refit of the tender ship would be completed on schedule.

In a report on the Government spend on the tender since it was rescued from a wreckers' yard in France three years ago, the Northern Ireland Audit Office said the restoration target of 2011 was “challenging”.

“The (Nomadic Charitable) Trust's action plan for the restoration phase indicates that work is to commence December 2009 and is to be completed ahead of the centenary celebrations,” comptroller and auditor general John Dowdall said. “This will be a challenging target for the Trust.”

Mr Dowdall raised concern that there still appeared to be no formal agreements between the Department for Social Development and the Trust for the transfer of ownership.

“Although it was a condition of DFP (Department of Finance and Personnel) approval (for the project) that the Nomadic should be transferred to the Charitable Trust as soon as was possible after the acquisition, the department still retains ownership more than three years on,” he said.

Mr Dowdall said the initial business case was “over-optimistic and did not include the full range of costs”.

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