Due to financial losses in 1947, CIÉ were unable to continue construction and a new Irish government, led by John A. Costello, halted the project. The new government planned to use any office space for its own uses, rather than allowing CIÉ exclusive claim, as the government was unable to stop the project entirely. After a number of suggestions, in 1949 the proposal that the offices be taken up by the new Department of Social Welfare and the Tánaiste’s office and that an unemployment office for women also be housed on the ground floor. Owing to financial strain, CIÉ sold the building to the Irish state and set about planning a more basic and utilitarian bus station in Smithfield. The Smithfield plans were rejected, and CIÉ was ultimately nationalised, and the planned bus station with office space for government use was approved. Construction on the site remained stopped from 1948 to 1951, leaving a "vast concrete carcass" unfinished with Myles na Gopaleen naming it the "bust station". It was the election of a new Fianna Fáil government in 1951 who had campaigned for the retention of the bus station, that ensured the project was completed for its intended purpose. It was officially opened on 19 October 1953 at a cost of over £1,000,000.