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MINISTER PATRICK O’DONOVAN has moved to distance himself from significant Office of Public Works (OPW) spending, claiming that he was “not responsible” for the cost of the Leinster House bicycle shed.
O’Donovan, now Minister for Higher Education, was Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW from July 2020 until April 2024.
In recent weeks the OPW has made headlines, first for its €336,000 spend on a bicycle shelter in Leinster House and more recently for the €1.4m spend on a security hut, also at Leinster House.
It was also reported this week that modular homes for Ukrainian refugees, a project being led by the OPW, are now expected to cost €442,000 per unit, more than double the initial estimate of €200,000.
Speaking to reporters at a post-Budget press conference today, O’Donovan said that he only learned of the price of the €1.4mn security hut when it was revealed in an Oireachtas committee last week.
The minister also rejected that he had any responsibility for the cost of any of the above projects, despite them all commencing during his time as minister of state.
Yesterday, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he was “embarrassed” by the cost of the bicycle shed and that he “accepts responsibility” as minister with responsibility for public spending.
When asked specifically if he also accepts any responsibility for the bicycle shed, O’Donovan replied:
“I wasn’t responsible for it.
“I didn’t approve money for it because that’s not the role of the Minister of State for the Office of Public Works. The accounting officer within the Office of Public Works is the chairman, and then, as we’ve seen in the Public Accounts Committee hearings, depending on a person’s position in that organisation, they have different level of sign off with regards to their financial responsibilities, something I think the chairman is now, with the management board of the Office of Public Works, reviewing.”
He added however that he agrees with Donohoe’s comments about the cost being embarrassing.
When asked if he believes there are sufficient checks and balances within the OPW when it comes to public spending, O’Donovan said the checks and balances within any government department come through the accounting officer and then are scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee.
“I would point out that it’s easy in some respects, to look at one or two projects but in the round, government departments have delivered,” he said.
When asked about the public anger that currently exists in regard to OPW spending specifically, O’Donovan said it is “important to point out that tens of thousands of people all over this country are being protected at the moment from floodwaters going into their houses every single day of the week, from sewage going into their houses every single day of the week, because of the work that the Office of Public Works have done.”
He added: “Over the last number of years, we have transformed a country that had a population of three and a half million people to a country with a population of six million people.”
When the minister was further questioned on the OPW spending and asked if he believes these examples indicate a systemic problem in the body, the minister told the reporter:
“No, because if you get a chance when the weather turns bad, I would suggest that you go to Clonmel, Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, my own hometown of Newcastle West, and ask the people there about what the work is that the Office of Public Works do.”
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Absolute waste, why not buy properties from Vulture funds so it’s a solid return income for the state and no more giving taxpayer HAP payments to private developers… Or would that make too much sense
@Brian Hackett: Great idea. People will get free homes paid for by the taxpayer and live next to taxpayers whom bought their own homes and pay tax. Savage stuff!
@Brian Hackett: please use the term
Vulture fund correctly. Vulture funds “swoop” down and buy distressed mortgages / severely cheap , then keep and sell on for a high profit .
@Ciaran: no they don’t they buy new builds and that stops ordinary people from getting on the property market, this has been a proven fact, Vulture funds now have up to 90% of new builds in Ireland
@Temp Stuff: nonsense, they will still have to pay rent which is a permanent income for the taxpayer saving on HAP payments also it’s a win win situation
Of course it’s a waste. But that’s the whole point. FFGs core voterbase, homeowners, have been hoodwinked into believing that property is the only way to build wealth. In other western countries, investing in equities is the way to gain wealth. FFGs high tax on equities makes this unviable, so the greedy homeowners see dollar signs while the rest of the population suffers, stuck in the rent trap that is Irish housing. They are architecting a demographic timebomb by implementing inflationary measures to increase housing prices, such as help to buy. This scheme would be good if there wasn’t a housing crisis, but, when supply is limited, adding liquidity/cash does nothing but add upwards pressure to prices. Vote anybody but FFG if you have ANY concern for your pension, or fellow citizens.
@Sean Stevenson: at last, somebody said it out loud, relation living in one of the major US cities has sold his house which over 25 years went up by about 90%, in the same period he built up an investment portfolio that allowed him retire early, he was gobsmacked how were taxed over here on investing in shares.
@Eddie Garvey: I assume it’s ETFs and the tax associated with that is what you are referring to? Otherwise buying and selling shares isn’t that expensive, Yes we have CGT but most countries do. I fail to understand why anyone would be gobsmacked at our regime.
@Sean Stevenson: What taxes on equities are you referring to exactly? The Apple money should be put into the strategic funds and nothing else. The helping of young people to buy a home is a good policy and much better that subsidies towards rent….yes more needs to be built too.
The pension stuff is laughable as pensions and financial assets have been growing for almost 10 years now post crash 2015 was the start. And if you look at the CB monthly net household reports, you’ll see that, obviously, the pandemic slowed stuff down. Most pensions are DC, and the pension holder can change the investment choices online through the introduction of Master Trusts.
I fail to see how any political party would affect pensions given most pension funds are investments are international.
Will simply push Price’s higher.. the problem is deeper than a hand out can handle.
Given that 50% of the people that use help to buy don’t actually need it in order to buy and that the scheme only pushes up prices further then I would say yes, it would be a pretty bad use of that money. Maybe build some actual houses and/or infrastructure with it instead?
@John Moore: Have you any evidence of this because the criteria seem very strict.
FG have committed to giving a handout of a half a BILLION euro to landlords rather than bring back homeownership they destroyed for our youth, basically anyone under 39 years of age. We can vote for ordinary people. Is féidir linn an rialtas a athrú. Vótáil Sinn Féin
@F1rYnpWc: FG are the single best thing to ever happen in Ireland :)
it’s not actually being funded with the apple windfall though. the Irish Times interview with Harris today said as much. the calculation is also unsound, mentioning a half sentence to the complexities of house prices with ever suggesting what better ways there are to help the squeezed middle. the author doesn’t like the HTB scheme. fair enough. but this opinion piece is not based on fact and not a fair assessment of the situation in my opinion.
Yes.
Help to buy doesn’t benefit regular people, it benefits developers.
Absolute waste
Qualifying Rules for Help to buy scheme rule out many. You must takeout a mortgage with main Irish bank covering 70% of cost.
If bank fails to approve sufficient mortgage, you have to save the difference taking you below 70% loan ratio while at the same time property prices increase by 30k.
The scheme money goes directly to t he developer.
Either give it back to Apple in the form of tax breaks or cut income taxes across the board. It most certainly shouldn’t be wasted on any sort of public spending as loony left-wing parties like Labour and the Social Democrats suggest.
Ireland has very high taxes. Help to buy allows folk to pay less (eg. UK levels) and spend the savings on a first home instead. The problem for Lefties is to avail of a tax rebate one needs to be working in the first place. They’d prefer to take this tax and redistribute it to someone else.
These shower of fools have proven they can’t be trusted with public money they don’t care about cost to the taxpayer even their unwanted ads on Facebook claim they have 16bn euros set aside for rainy day fund well 13bn euros of it came from apple money they didnt want and cost the taxpayer millions to fight the case they should be jailed nevermind not getting re elected #VOTE THEM OUT
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