€336k Leinster House bike shelter 'not acceptable' value for taxpayer, says OPW boss
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The Office of Public Works (OPW) must “seriously reflect on” the circumstances which saw it pay an “extraordinary” €336,000 for a bike shelter on the grounds of Leinster House, the body’s chair has said.
In a report into the tendering and construction of the covered bike shed, John Conlon said that the cost of delivering the bike rack, which provides just 18 bicycle spaces, “is completely not acceptable” in the context of value for money for the taxpayer.
He said that on foot of the OPW’s probe into the shed’s construction, which was signed off by just one principal officer within the body, the threshold for such expenditure governance has been reduced to €200,000 from €500,000.
He added that henceforth the costs of all such infrastructure projects within the confines of Leinster House and Government Buildings will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission — the body charged with the running of the Dáil — at its monthly meetings.
Mr Conlon, who took over from previous chair Maurice Buckley last April, said that the bike shelter — which is situated at Government Buildings on the far side of Leinster House — had first been posited in December 2019 by a group of elected representatives who had requested the provision of improved bicycle parking facilities within the complex.
There had already been multiple bike racks within the grounds of Leinster House, however, they were uncovered.
Mr Conlon said that the construction of the bike shed was delegated to the contractors holding the OPW’s measured term maintenance contract (MTMC), a framework put in place to deal with small-scale capital projects up to a cost of €1m in Dublin and its surrounding areas.
“While the costs for this project can be explained, the overall cost of delivering a covered bicycle shelter at Leinster House is completely not acceptable in the wider context of value for money and value for the taxpayer,” Mr Conlon said.
The project, which was initially budgeted at €350,000, saw €121,194 spent on the manufacture, supply of materials, and installation of the covered shelter.
Some €52,887 was spent on groundworks, including drainage, ducting and resurfacing works, while a further €44,940 was paid for the supply and installation of granite landscaping.
Meanwhile, €30,469 was spent on ancillary works carried out by the workmen involved, including the supply and installation of safety bollards.
‘Preliminaries’, referring to costs “not necessarily tied to any specific item of the project”, saw an outlay of €23,044.
Archaeology services to the value of €2,952 were also commissioned, while a cost of €10,816 was incurred in terms of quantity surveying and contract management.
Mr Conlon said that the design of the project, which pre-dated his own commissionership, had needed “to be cognisant of the architectural facades” of both Leinster House and Government Buildings.
“The OPW considered that the structure required a design to minimise the visual impact of the shelter on the vista,” he said, adding that the “shelter and landscaping is designed for high durability and longevity and the aesthetic is appropriate to, and in keeping with, the historic setting of our national parliament”.
The OPW will face a grilling regarding the spending on the bike shelter, amongst other things, at the Oireachtas Finance Committee this afternoon.