LAST UPDATE | 26 Sep
THE CHAIR OF the Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure has said the €1.4 million spent on a security hut at Government Buildings highlights a “lack of respect for taxpayers’ money”.
The details of the cost of the security hut emerged yesterday when representatives for the Office of Public Works (OPW) appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure over the €336,000 Leinster House bike shelter.
OPW chair John Conlon said he wanted to “emphasise” that the cost followed “an extensive review of security in this campus” by members of An Garda Síochána.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Fianna Fáil TD and chair of the Committee John McGuinness acknowledged that there are security issues at Leinster House and “security technology” in the hut.
However, he added: “I believe the systems behind the delivery of these projects has failed the people, the country, and the different departments that have spent that money.”
McGuinness said he has “no doubt that you could have done the job much cheaper, much more efficiently and still dealt with the problems that you had in the first place”.
“There seems to be no respect for taxpayers’ money, and there seems to be no responsibility taken when something goes wrong, and we can’t allow that to continue,” added McGuinness.
He also questioned why the contract for the security hut was “allowed to spiral to a sum of €1.4 million”.
“I know that jobs have to be done, I know that security is necessary,” said McGuinness.
“But what people are outraged about is the fact that there seems to be no control on the spending of taxpayers’ money, and very little respect for the fact that it is not government money, and there’s no oversight or responsibility taken.”
Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman today defended Government when asked if Leinster House respects taxpayer money.
Speaking in Dublin he said: “It is deeply, deeply frustrating – for me as a Minister and indeed for many offices who are looking to get greater investment into key public services, into key public infrastructure – when we see situations where it looks like public money hasn’t been well spent.”
O’Gorman added that he had attended a local coffee morning earlier today and that it was an issue that voters were discussing the hut with him. He said it was a “source of frustration” for both Ministers and members of the public.
Speaking at Sinn Féin’s alternative budget launch, finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty vowed that a similar issue would not take place if his party were in Government and said there needed for more accountability to be place on the ministers in charge rather than the board of the OPW or other contractors.
“In terms of accountability, I made it very clear – the Minister sets the tone,” he said responding to a question from The Journal.
“See when a Minister decides, ‘That has nothing to do with me. That is to do with the OPW. That is to do the board at the National Children’s Hospital’ – that gives people a free reign.
“The minister sets the tone. And under Sinn Féin, it would be very clear that there will be no wasteful expenditure of that nature,” he added.
Includes reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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