Enough is enough! This is taking the piss........

Jonny Arson

UCD disputes overspend to re-do President's house


DANIEL MCCONNELL

EXCLUSIVE

UCD spent more than €3m on the refurbishment of President Hugh Brady's house in 2004, double original estimates, according to sources at the college.

The Sunday Independent first revealed the huge spend on the presidential lodge back in August 2004, but new information obtained suggests that the total spend for Dr Brady's makeover of the house was closer to €3.5m than the original €1.5m we reported at the time.

Several senior academics as well as the Students' Union have reacted to the news of the spend with "deep shock" and "anger", as it coincides with the request for a major pay hike for the heads of all the universities, while the college's staff were refused a three per cent increase.

Officially, the college denied the spend was anywhere near €3m, but said that in addition to the cost of renovation, the area on campus around the lodge had been redeployed which had an impact on the lodge's grounds.

A spokeswoman for UCD said: "Before the president took up residence in August 2004, there was an amount of approximately €1.5m set aside to refurbish the interior of the building."

At the time of taking up his current post, Dr Brady had been accused by some senior members of the college of demanding the major overhaul on the lodge, which is a listed building, before moving his family in. However, this was denied yesterday by the college. "The building had had no significant investment for 20-30 years and, being a listed building, was in need of upgrading and refurbishment. The incoming president agreed to a request by the buildings office to delay taking up occupancy to enable the internal works to be completed," the spokeswoman added.

In addition to the interior refurbishment, back in 2002 UCD set aside €1.5m for "essential works such as roofing and sewage" in the area of University Lodge ahead of the change in occupancy.

Also since 2004, UCD purchased the adjoining Philips site and as a result the area at the rear of University Lodge was redeveloped as playing pitches. The gardens were relocated to the side of the property and restored, according to the college.

Construction on the lodge was put out to public tender and the Dublin-based company Collen was awarded the project.

Martin Glynn, spokesman for the company, said in 2004: "It was an extensive job, but a very necessary one. Although a lot of the work was slow and tedious, it was well worth doing, and we are almost finished. It is my opinion that, had the work not been carried out, the house would have fallen into disrepair."

Interior decorating firm New Look Decor handled all the decorating work on the lodge. Back in 2004, a spokesman for the Arklow-based firm said: "Our firm has been hired to do 100 per cent of the decorating work on the house. We have a team working intensively over a three-week period to ensure the high-quality job gets finished on time."

Speaking yesterday, Dan Hayden, President of UCD Students' Union said: "It's a sad day that such money can be made available for such grand projects at a time when the student grant remains so poor. It's another indication of 'slap on the back' Ireland and we should be trying to use our resources to tackle the worst difficulties first."

UCD has over 20,000 full-time and part-time students and its administration has seen significant changes since Brady took office. Brady has an impressive academic record and has held several posts at Harvard University.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1774312&issue_id=15243 - registration required

I remember I was outraged a few years back when I heard €1.5 million was been pissed away on something that should cost alot less but €3.5 million!!!

Students and staff are been pissed around constantly by this college's admin, students are pissed around due to an inadequate amount of textbooks in the library before/and even worse since modularisation, students can't often walk around Belfield at night due to poor lighting, paving around the college is H&S diaster in the making, students are been ripped off around the college by crappy food costs, textbooks, photocopying costs etc. etc. etc. on and on and on......

.... while our overlords spend €3.5 million doing up a gaf. Something is rotten in the state of UCDD.

I remember the SU protested big time over this when the original €1.5 million figure became public, I wonder if Dan Hayden has any substance in his words and will actually do something about it like campaign and protest? Haha not

Hugh Brady *awaits in anticipation at the odd few suspects who will defend this*

The_Minister

From my reading of the article, it appears that the renovation of the playing pitches came under the €3.5m. This is unfair, because I've never seen Hugh Brady playing soccer. At least some of tht 3.5m souldn't be counted.

hullaballoo

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1774312&issue_id=15243 - registration required

I remember I was outraged a few years back when I heard €1.5 million was been pissed away on something that should cost alot less but €3.5 million!!!

Students and staff are been pissed around constantly by this college's admin, students are pissed around due to an inadequate amount of textbooks in the library before/and even worse since modularisation, students can't often walk around Belfield at night due to poor lighting, paving around the college is H&S diaster in the making, students are been ripped off around the college by crappy food costs, textbooks, photocopying costs etc. etc. etc. on and on and on......

.... while our overlords spend €3.5 million doing up a gaf. Something is rotten in the state of UCDD.

I remember the SU protested big time over this when the original €1.5 million figure became public, I wonder if Dan Hayden has any substance in his words and will actually do something about it like campaign and protest? Haha not

Hugh Brady *awaits in anticipation at the odd few suspects who will defend this*

Did you just post copyrighted material without a licence?

Chakar

The Lodge needed the refurbishment after all it is a listed building which means that the owners in this case UCD are compelled by Irish law to repair and maintain them.Also there is extra cost due to the due care that has to be taken to prevent any damage to the building itself.

You also have the playing pitches which are included in the total estimate as it was somehow related to his gardens.

The_Minister

It's free to sign up, and he linked and cited the source.

Jonny Arson

hullaballoo wrote:

Did you just post copyrighted material without a licence?

I seemed to recall Dajaffa publishing another Indo article on Brady a few weeks back and you having absolutely no problem in the world about it, funny that.

Different strokes for different folks hey Hull!

The_Minister

TBH Zane, the man deserves this. He has been denied a payrise, and has spent the last few years reforming the entire college, why shouldn't we patch up his Victorian leather couches, and gold-plated light-fixtures? It is our duty to keep the house in good repair, why not throw a little bit extra in for Brady? Just think of it as a perk.
He doesn't even get his own driver, and most government ministers do. He lives there anyway, we might as well make the man comfortable.

Beside, when you think of all the gold/silver/ivory fitting that come with such an old house, you can see how it might cost over a million.

TheVan

Jesus relax will ye?

Read these extracts:

Irish Independent wrote:

The building had had no significant investment for 20-30 years and, being a listed building, was in need of upgrading and refurbishment. The incoming president agreed to a request by the buildings office to delay taking up occupancy to enable the internal works to be completed

The work would have been done with or without Brady being President.

Also, from what I've heard, the building was a disgrace. It was a listed building with rotten floorboards etc and no fit place for a family to live.

If UCD is to attract high-quality Presidents, there's really no point restricting it to those who don't have a family.

Dan Hayden only protested because he "has to".

Get over it.

dajaffa

/echoes points made by TheVan

Basically the University Lodge is an old listed building, parts of which had fallen into disrepair, and had to be fixed. If it had been put off and done at a later date it would probably have ended up being even more expensive.

If I remember correctly the hoo-ha arose when the architect included an exercise bike on an illustration of one of the rooms, and there was much a fuss kicked up about Hugh building himself a gym with the money, which wasn't exactly what they call... true.

Umaro

Aw man, Hugh should change his surname to Hefner now that he's pimped his place out. The rest of y'all haterz better check yourselves before you wreck yourselves - he's only being real. Watch out for him on Cribs tomorrow night, MTV.

Sangre

The Fabulous Life of.....Hugh Brady.

the evil lime

I'm not hugely bothered by the restoration of a listed building, but I'd be interested in knowing why it cost more than double the estimate.

Sangre

Its Ireland?

panda100

The indo seems to have a vendetta against Brady so I tune out when they mention him. Wouldnt believe most of what they say about him.

the evil lime

Sangre wrote:

Its Ireland?

Good point.

That'd kinda account for about 60%-80% over budget. Ireland + UCD, I'll accept 100%+.

Tayto2000

I think the spokeswoman they're referring to in the piece is ex VP Mary Clayton, she gave a Q+A session in Arts with the head of buildings during all the furor and I remember those statements. It's not mentioned here, but she also said that it was decided specifically during Art Cosgroves time that it would be inappropriate for money to be spent on restoration while a president was occupying the place. Correctly, it was predicted that OPW required preservation would be perceived as personal abuse of funds. Despite this precaution, perhaps inevitably, there was a huge protest including a lot of misinformation about 'Hugh's Gym' complete with photoshopped body builders.

3.5m is a lot of money, no doubt about it. But what is the total spend on normal building maintenance each year? I'm willing to bet it's a high multiple of this. Pulling that number out of the air is not very useful without context. Is there a restoration job anywhere else in Dublin it could be compared too?

Jonny Arson

The Van/Dajaffa, listed building or not €3.5 million is an utter ridiculous amount of money to spend restoring that particular building. I don't believe how it could be possible to spend €3.5 million restoring the lodge even if you tried! More than twice over budget, its scandalous. Figures must be released.

Chakar

Jonny Arson wrote:

The Van/Dajaffa, listed building or not €3.5 million is an utter ridiculous amount of money to spend restoring that particular building. I don't believe how it could be possible to spend €3.5 million restoring the lodge even if you tried! More than twice over budget, its scandalous. Figures must be released.

Well for starters we don't know what state the lodge was in.

The_Minister

I could have sworn that Zane started this thread..........

humbert

what was that firespinner?

singingstranger

humbert wrote:

what was that firespinner?

Roffle!