€336k Leinster House bike shed built after TDs complained about 'inconvenience'
On Tuesday the head of the OPW said he is 'fully familiar with the real anger' among the public regarding the bike shelter, but denied there are other similar projects which have yet to come to light. Picture: Tadgh McNally
A €336,000 bike shed at Leinster House was constructed after a group of TDs wrote to the Oireachtas expressing the “real inconvenience and annoyance” over the lack of covered bicycle spaces on the campus.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik, on behalf of the Oireachtas members cyclists’ group, wrote to the House of the Oireachtas Commission in October 2020 describing the “real urgency” of encouraging more people to cycle to Leinster House, given the climate and the then covid crises.
“The lack of any sheltered bike parking facility has meant real inconvenience and annoyance during the recent wet weather for all of us who cycle into Leinster House regularly,” Ms Bacik wrote in one of four such messages she sent between that time and the end of 2022.
“The facilities provided for bike parking remain woefully inadequate generally despite repeated promises that they would be improved,” she said.
On Tuesday the head of the OPW said he is “fully familiar with the real anger” among the public regarding the bike shelter, but denied there are other similar projects which have yet to come to light.
At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, chair of the OPW John Conlon acknowledged the “extraordinary” cost of the 36-space shelter, but said regarding other similar projects: “I don’t believe there’s anything of this dimension.”
Mr Conlon heard from several TDs that the issue is being brought up on “every single canvass” ahead of the upcoming general election. Labour’s Alan Kelly noted that the €2.2bn National Children’s Hospital “is being put in the ha’penny place by the bike shed”.
“Fundamentally the OPW has undermined how the public service spends money,” Mr Kelly said. This sentiment was echoed by Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe, who said: “I can’t tell you the damage you’ve done to spending on important public projects.”
“I’m really frustrated that we’re here for such a small amount of money but such an incredible amount of waste,” Mr McAuliffe said.
The committee heard that the bike shelter was first requested of the 21-person strong Dublin Conservation Team within the OPW, a team containing technical staff including senior architects, but that at no point were politicians told of the exorbitant cost.
“That’s the problem, people think we run this building, we don’t,” Mr McAuliffe replied.
Regarding 654 modular homes for Ukrainian refugees which the OPW was charged with building in 2022, where costs ballooned from €145,000 to €442,000 per unit, Mr Conlon said that the inflated costs are attributable to the “emergency” nature of the project and the fact that the sites they were built on were poorly serviced.
Of the €297,000 inflation seen per unit, Mr Conlon agreed that the overspend was “very significant”.
It was described by Alan Kelly as “absolutely beyond stupidity”.
Mr Conlon said that, despite the emergency nature of the project, none of the units were delivered within the projected 10-week timeframe, with most being completed over roughly nine months.
“We need to learn lessons from this,” he said.
The OPW chair agreed that he is “uneasy” over a 20-year-old contractual requirement for the OPW to build a €70m national children’s science museum at the National Concert Hall site in Dublin, despite the fact such a facility has existed in south Dublin since 2019.
“The legal position is that we have to build it unfortunately,” he said. “To be honest I’m uneasy. It’s a difficult situation for me to explain.”
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