Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MINISTER Paschal Donohoe has said it is “vital” that a report being carried out into the €336,000 bike shed constructed at Leinster House is completed quickly.
The new bike shed for Leinster House, which allows for storage of eighteen bikes, cost €336,051.30 in total.
The cost of construction and installation was €322,282.78.
Finance Minister Jack Chambers said last week that whoever signed off on the new bike shed must be held accountable.
Speaking at the Department of Finance today, Donohoe said it is important that the report being carried out by the Office of Public Works (OPW) be made public.
He said the OPW “do really important work” but added “for something like this to happen is a real disappointment”.
When asked how disappointed he was when he heard the story, he said:
“I had a very similar reaction to everybody else. That something like that could have cost so much money.
“The Office of Public Works do really important work all over the country, and they do it well, and for this to happen under their watch, it was a real disappointment and a surprise to me. I am looking forward to seeing a report on this completed quickly,” said Donohoe.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I see speed camera vans on average about once per week. Given these stats why am I not seeing a similar frequency of drink/drug detection checkpoints?
Because catching people for drunk driving doesn’t make easy money
Not enough revenue Pat ,it costs money to man checkpoints where one trained monkey in a van will make thousands per day. They have **** all to do with safety.
Cannabis is a depressant. It slows down brain function in 5 ways.
Reduced coordination
Slower reaction times
Slower information processing
Confusion
Changes in vision, hearing, and time and space perception
People who smoke cannabis ‘think’ they can drive safely but the reality is that the drug has affected their judgement and view of reality.
I remember one time travelling in a van with a friend who had smoked cannabis, he was driving and he drove straight through a roundabout, one of those raised ones with flower beds and kerbing around it.
I remarked:
‘As the crow flies eh Dave’
‘Oh yeah Rory Gallagher, put it on man – thought I heard something back there – hope we don’t have puncture’
I put the Doors Roadhouse Blues on instead.
That’s an interesting synopsis, can you provide a link to any peer reviewed study to back up your claims?
A time traveling van?
It was a story Robert…
I bet the hours fly by in your house
He’s all the time in the world since his mate got that time travelling van.
Cannabis remains in the system for up to six weeks. I don’t think a person can be considered under the influence after the first couple of days…
So the main point is there are very few road accidents. Most crashes are caused by people under the influence or doing stupid things.
That doesn’t follow at all. Detectable levels of most drugs are well below impairment levels. It may well be that many fatalities are as a result of some sort of intoxication, but the data ( at least as presented in this article) simply doesn’t support that conclusion.
@clever jake. I don’t disagree with you at all. That was my point…
Don’t worry. Just keep telling people to slow down. Sure it’ll be grand like.
OR – more than four out of five were caused by people NOT under the influence of drugs!
Illegal drugs, 4 out of 5 were drunk
Why is cannibis illegal it contains no toxins unlike alcohal
Are you reading this littleone
I’ve also got a question that will get plenty of red thumbs but are these statistics for the people who caused an accident or for everyone that died. If I’m in a passenger seat of a car and high as a kite but the driver is sober and we crash and both die does that go down as fifty percent of us had taken drugs? Are alcohol related deaths measured as above the legal limit or if you had minimal alcohol in your system. I was told by a detective friend once that if any party in a car is killed in an accident and had been drinking then it is recorded as an alcohol related death. I’m just curious as to how these statistics are compiled.
How hard would it be for a car manufacturer to set it up that if someone is sitting on a seat and the seat belt is not on that the car won’t start? They can already sense a person in a seat for the airbags and no when the seat belt is not closed so surely it’s not hard to make the last bit happen.
have your say