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LAST UPDATE | 4 Sep 2024
MINISTER FOR FINANCE Jack Chambers has said that whoever signed off on the new €336,000 bike shed at Leinster House must be held accountable.
The new bike shed for Leinster House, which allows for storage of 36 bikes, cost €336,051.30 in total.
The cost of construction and installation was €322,282.78.
Speaking today, Chambers said the shelter is ”a complete waste of public money”.
“I think people are rightly annoyed at this, and there needs to be full accountability for whoever signed off on it and they should explain why it cost what it has cost,” he said.
“I think there is a need within the wider system for those who are responsible for capital projects to be cognisant of value engineering, value for money, and ensuring that whenever projects are advanced, and that they’re at the lowest cost in terms of the taxpayer.”
It comes after a Galway engineering firm said it could build the bike shed for less than a tenth of the fee paid by the Office of Public Works.
However, street furniture company Larkin Engineering said that while its “competitors” charge over €322,000, it could build and install a similar one for €19,995.
Get Your Own #LeinsterHouse #BikeShelter! 🚴♀️
— Larkin Engineering (@Larkinengineer) September 3, 2024
Don’t miss this deal!
💸 Competitor's Price: €322,282
🔥 #LarkinEngineering: €19,995 (Supplied & Installed)
Or, go for our Cycle Shelter Type 1 (fits 18 bikes) for just €7,000
Give your bikes a best home without breaking the bank! pic.twitter.com/1xXahEc6Ww
The company added that an even cheaper alternative can be provided for €7,000.
Stephen Larkin, the general manager of Larkin Engineering, told The Journal that he doesn’t think “there’s anyone that’s going to be able to stand over the costing” of the Leinster House bike shed.
“Something has gone very wrong in the pricing,” said Larkin.
He added: “Going into a building like Leinster House, you’re always going to put a bit of a premium on it, because it’s a protected building.
“You’ll add on maybe 15% due to unforeseen things that might come up, but from chatting to people, the estimation that most people are coming up with for all the work is around €60,000.”
While Larkin said these estimations do not include the granite flooring of the bike shed, he added: “If you go over the top and add on another €50,000 for granite, you’re still only in the region of €110,000.”
Asked about the social media post, Larkin said: “We were just making a joke of the whole situation.
“The situation is a joke already, but we were just jumping on it and making a joke of it as well.”
The shelter, which was hailed by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan as a good example of public sector climate action, also required archaeological advice to make sure it fit in at the parliamentary complex.
These costs came in at €2,952.
Ryan has since said the fee spent on the bike said was an “incredibly expensive cost”.
While he said the bike shed is on a “sensitive site”, he added that he was “shocked when I saw the price”.
In July, it emerged that Labour leader Ivana Bacik had pushed for new bike shelters at Leinster House.
However, the Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl replied to say it was “extremely unlikely” that planning permission would be provided and that the existing facilities were underused.
Asked about the costs involved, a spokeswoman for the OPW said: “The bicycle shelter is a new structure located within the setting of Leinster House, a protected structure of national importance.
“In response to the character of the historic setting a well-designed structure with an appropriate use of high-quality materials and finish were required.”
Meanwhile, there have been examples in recent years of Government funded projects which include bike sheds coming in at a fraction of the price paid for the Leinster House one.
In 2022, €50,000 worth of funding provided to a Co Kerry GAA club by the Department of Rural and Community Development was used to develop a walkway, car parking, a picnic area and a bike shed.
Under the same funding tranche, €50,000 was given to a Co Cork sporting club to develop a fountain for a lake, to upgrade a walking surface, develop a car parking area, install seating, and develop a bike shed.
With additional reporting from Ken Foxe and Jane Moore
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A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program is called a Taikonaut.For America and the rest of the world its Astronaut and for Russia its Cosmonaut.
@Padraig: nobody travels in space its all fake
Lol! Alt-Right conspiracy theorists are funny.
@Breas: <——- a man with good discernment.
@OpenBorders No alt right, Just a guy with his own opinion. Which seems a tad silly.
@OpenBorders:
I don’t think you can really say much when you have set up a profile specifically to invoke a reaction.
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
Hey. Paddy. While you’re here…..I’m not a Zionist. You know this.
@Charlie Fogarty:
I thought we settled that – no need to rehash – I believe I even said you have discussions unlike many
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
I just take umbrage with being considered a Zionist when my support of Israel differs greatly to that mode of thinking. It’s important to differentiate between them.
…or a Coconaut!!!
What’s a Irish one called ???
The whole lot of them??
Surely not. Who’s going to make all our stuff?
@WJH: Why? Sure the Chinese are a great bunch of lads!
I hear they want to go to the sun at night as well
That was north Korea dude… But easy mistake they appear similar.
A Great Bunch Of Lads
That’d be awesome if it happens
They already own half of Canada and Africa!
China look set to dominate this sphere for the foreseeable future:
Soon they will be the only nation to have in-service, proven moon landing technology. By 2025 China will also likely have the only remaining Space Station in orbit with the ISS due to retire. They are already pretty far ahead in the race to capture a Near Earth Object and return in to an Earth orbit. NASA started their project this year on a shoestring budget as they prioritise a Mars 2030 run. The first nation to return an asteroid will lead the way in develop methods and technologies to mine such asteroids.
Essentially they are the only people actually trying to begin a space exploitation program. NASA are stuck on a vanity project, ESA doesn’t have a real budget and the Soviets are only interested in selling rockets anyway. They can do this because their system has advantages for long term infrastructure development over systems with elections. I really don’t see how they’d catch up at this point anyway.
@John Considine:
“the Soviets” ? C’mon comrade.
@Charlie Fogarty: I like how the only part of my reply worth of comment was my use of “Soviet” as opposed to Russian….
China’s relentless march towards becoming the next true Superpower? Let’s not worry about nonsense like that. All post in defence of Comrad Putin!!!
Sometimes you guys are just *too* transparent man.
@John Considine:
It was the funniest part. You’re framing the whole thing this as if the race hasn’t already been run. Any progress into space exploration is a positive now, regardless of who does it.
Who cares who owns the moon? I hope they are planning on building a base.
Who is ewe guys?
Sounds very interesting, It would be great to see the results and what type of minerals and compounds are found. Maybe E.T too
Good for them.
Apparently we’re all on a big ball, rotating at a speed of 1000mph and further rotating around a Sun, at 67,000mph. In addition, all of that is hurtling through an infinite universe at speeds up in the 100s of 1000s of mph – yet I feel absolutely zero vibration, lateral movement, or rotational pull from all of it.
Do you ?
Yawn…. No response on the last article you posted with the exact same comment so thought you would try again? What is wrong with you?
@Roibeard O Beachain: I like to question what I’m instructed to believe, is what’s wrong with me.
An admirable quality in a world teaming with MSM controlled automatons, if I do say so myself.
@Patrick Mac: ‘I like to question what I’m instructed to believe’
Unless it comes from a conspiracy website,then you won’t question it at all.
@Patrick Mac: Ha ha not this crap again! :-)
@OpenBorders: what website is it your referring to. I don’t need any website, book, TV set, radio to tell me that when I go outside, sit/stand still and do my best to detect, or feel motion I fail every time.
You can try it yourself if you wish. Stand away from the computer, go outside and ask yourself:
“where is the motion” ?
Go ahead, do it now, then report your findings.
Inertial frame…
@ Patrick Mac. I went outside. I observed the motion of the stars in the sky. The speed is almost imperceptible because the Earth rotates at only once per 24hrs. This is half the speed of the hour hand of a clock so I wasn’t expecting to have to hold on for dear life. But its very real all the same. Go outside and check yourself.
@Patrick Mac:
Yeah I don’t get science either.
@Paraic McDonagh: you’re ignoring the other two, additional trajectories Paraic:
*** rotating around a Sun, at 67,000mph
*** hurtling through an infinite universe at speeds up in the 100s of 1000s of mph
Why did you feel nothing from those, either ? More importantly, who, or what, carries out the task of steering planet earth through the infinite universe at such extreme speeds, huh ?
If you can answer this then you will be a rich man indeed.
Paraic, he’s a known troll so don’t waste your time.
Patrick i thought you were gonna go watch miles from tomorrow?
Scientists rarely become rich men. The reason you don’t feel anything is because space is a vacuum and so there is no resistance to the earth spinning or moving so that’s why you don’t feel anything. Simple really.
@Patrick Mac. Tell me this; when you’re on a train, do you expect your tea to splash into your face at 70mph when you tilt the cup to your mouth?
…If I was sitting next to you, it would.
@Paraic McDonagh: sorry, that’s not comparing like with like, Paraic.
He is Patrick. You could travel 60, 000 kph on a train and not feel a thing. Take away sound, windows and vibration from the track and you wont know you are moving ( if the train’s velocity is constant ) A sudden change in the trains velocity and coffee is getting spilled all over you or a lovely fat women has signed your death warrant….
Ha ha! You don’t notice anything because you are traveling at the same speed!
Your atoms are vibrating if that helps
Their mission will be as Fake as the US one in 1969. I wonder will the show the earth spinning from the moon. maybe they could place a video camera on the moon and show us the earth spinning 24/7
How can it spin if it’s flat?:
China already put a rover on the moon in 2013 called Jade Rabbit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutu_(rover)#
You do realise that optical reflectors were placed on the moon by Apollo astronauts which anyone can bounce a laser off and are therefore verifiable? How do you purpose those got there if the moon landings were fake?
Charlie, you can spin a plate. Same principle, just bigger. The Earth sits on a big wobbly stick. Or on four elephants on the back of a giant turtle. Depends who you ask.
Padraig, odd name for a dog.
Trump will want to get there first to brand it Trump Moon.
How high is the moon -Ho Hi is a China man? Ho low is his brother.
@Bennythekid:@Bennythekid:who is his brother how low is his cousin
Wonder how they will take all of China to Mars?
*The moon
Lol
Look at the south China sea…I don’t trust these medieval s (umbags
The Earth is Flat!!!! This is not a piss take..
Apparently the Chinese have admitted that there was no sign of the NASA every been on the moon! No Apollo Missions!! All a big Masonic lie..
Yes and they want to buy Donald Trump for a Trillion Dollars and have him run it for them……
Is his wife’s name She Qisong!!!!!
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