Leinster House Bicycle Shed

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576938#Comment_122576938

Maybe they tendered for it on Ticket Master.

Baba Yaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576899#Comment_122576899

sweet sufferin shite…and if its anything like the brand spankin -sparkleing new cycle lane near where i live the feckin cyclists wont use it anyway! fcuk me pink,what a waste…

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576952#Comment_122576952

from that article

“However, the project stalled until February of 2019 when work started on the second phase, bringing the path to Newcomen Bridge at North Strand Road. That section, a 750m stretch, opened in mid-2020 after a spend of €8.9 million.”

by the time this yellow gold brick paved cycle path reaches Galway its cost would probably be measured in units of National Children’s Hospital spent

Augme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576887#Comment_122576887

At the moment any issue with plumbing inside a school, garda station, government department, local county Council office, state body is carried out by private sector. Why is having that carried out by public sector plumbers should at bad idea?

The government made a decision to outsource IT works for the public sector and the cost of that is eye watering.

Hibernicis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn8HSjitKYQ

This from the wonderful Niall Toibin comes to mind.

carveone

The thing about 30 million euro cycle paths is you're into the regions of millions and billions, which are hard to get your head around. But the public understand the smaller things, which is why they trip you up.

Judging from the posts, 300 grand levels are understandable for minions like us; and then it becomes obvious when someone is taking the piss. I may not know how much a bike shelter costs but I know someone who does.

As KevRossi said above, this could lead to a lot of other similar waste being uncovered, and by the trend of this thread, it's already happening.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576983#Comment_122576983

Government departments have very little choice but to out source a lot of IT tasks and projects, they just don't have the skill sets, competing on wages for skilled IT people is impossible.

Private Joker

I'm involved in public procurement and with the checks and balances, there is no way this should have cost this much. It shows a complete lack of oversight and competence at best. I'd love to see the breakdown of the construction and installation.

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576869#Comment_122576869

Because when the Government want anything built ie The Childrens Hospital it seems that the highest tender is always accepted.

rob316

The QS fees are scandalous it wouldn't cost that to build 20 houses, I'm struggling to see 50k here.

I presume BAM was the contractor for this.

Rows Grower

The Minister of State with responsibility for the office of public works Kieran O Donnell has sensed the outrage about this is growing and in order to distance himself from it has called for a full review of the costs.

Someone is going to get hung for this and they most likely won't go down without a fight, hopefully this will be the opening of a rather large can of worms.

The owner of the one bike pictured under the shelter yesterday has come forward to say the bike wasn't even properly sheltered.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577202#Comment_122577202

The highest tender isn't the problem.

It's a poor planning and lack of detail in the tender/specification documents which allows the contractor almost free reign to charge for variations as the design changes/is updated during construction.

whisky_galore

The owner of the one bike pictured under the shelter yesterday has come forward to say the bike wasn't even properly sheltered.

Oh boo hoo.

magicbastarder

while you might not care about that person's bike (good for you!) maybe the point is that if the bike wasn't sheltered, then the bike shelter doesn't even qualify as a shelter.

thatsdaft

In my day we left bikes out in rain and wind

We truly have reached first world problem stage

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577393#Comment_122577393

As childish as your response is, the original comment does show that the construction as designed wasn't fit for purpose which is often the case when it comes to cycling infrastructure. Then bizarrely people complain when cyclists don't use what they believe is perfectly good infrastructure!

wolfyboy555

grab a bargain.

http://www.adverts.ie/34855467

Red Silurian

Why did they only build it for 18 bikes? We have 160 TDs (174 after the next GE) and 60 senators... They're not all going to be able to park there

geographica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576714#Comment_122576714

You are right 👍 and Patrick O’Donovan before that

geographica

Oh it’s in an Irish hospital it probably cost a couple of million

Baba Yaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577324#Comment_122577324

nah,never happen…what we'll get is "contractual obligation" "on legal advice from the a.g." "confidenciality clause" "lessons learned" "going forward" "because we're worth it" and the lad that made the tea and swept up the dust will be sent to watch a bog in some windswept part of offaly,thats all that will happen…

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577472#Comment_122577472

how many people in total work in Dail Eireann? i suspect the vast majority of people who cycle there are not elected representatives.

sure they have a free car park on the lawn.

Widdensushi

The rte article says it's to protect against the prevailing northerly wind,,I can only presume that is an issue to do with the location of buildings around it,as northerly wind would not be the prevailing in the majority of the country,but it also gives the impression it only gives shelter if the wind is one direction.

argentum

Everyone knows the waste of our tax money every year by The OPW

In my industry I used to get tenders in from them looking for the products I sell but the drawings and bill of tender used to state my competitors brands on all the paperwork. I had to buy off them to tender so The OPW got their 3 quotes from different suppliers but one would be cheaper as they quoted my company and another one

That's how every year my competitor gets so many contracts , it wouldn't surprise me to see their name as the supplier of the bike rack as that's one of the things they supply

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577443#Comment_122577443

in my day we already knew that storing bikes outside is not good for them.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577523#Comment_122577523

Pretty much the same with us, product codes from our competitor so I don't even bother. Its who you know not how cost effective you are.

conorhal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577393#Comment_122577393

That to my mind is actually the ultimate insult, all that money spent and it doesn't even fulfill it's most basic function, sheltering bikes.

This isn't the only example of dreadful design when it comes to bike shelters, there's another rather costly looking 'bike shelter' near me outside the central criminal courts on Parkgate St. which I've ducked under during a downpour…. and surprise surprise, I had to jog on as I was getting soaked underneath said 'shelter':

The design looks familiar too, both this and the shelter at the Dail look like the same utterly useless design you see at bus and LUAS stops these days, both of which provide ample digital advertising opportunities, but almost no shelter. The bloody things are too tall and too shallow to act as anything other than an advertising hoarding.

Again this is typical of the contempt shown by Dublin County Council towards those they are supposed to serve. Do the shelters actually shelter Dubliners? "Who cares! They line to pockets of our contractor cronies and JC Decaux write us a fat check for advertising on them" Whether they provide a service or function for the public is at best a tertiary concern.
It frankly smacks of corruption that something could cost so much and not even provide any actual shelter, I'd love to know who has the contract to provide all this useless street furniture that servers no function. Same regards whoever owns the contract to lay all that red tarmac that's used to denote cycling lanes, that stuff seems to dissolve into grit within months of being laid, so you’d have to wonder who's brother in law owns that contract?

JupiterKid

Yet another example of this deeply inept govt p*ssing away taxpayer's money.

I'm sure many more examples of wanton wastage of tax revenue exist but haven't come to light...

carveone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577472#Comment_122577472

RTE now quotes Mr. Ryan as saying "can store 36 bikes". It's creeping upwards, sort of like the cost.

I vaguely wondered how much a hotel room is in the Davenport opposite and would it have been cheaper to book a room for the bikes instead.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577588#Comment_122577588

There's another one on the Kildare Street side that accommodates 36 bicycles.

hold my beer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577600#Comment_122577600

How much did it cost to build?

BornSkippy

According to the OPW it's a matter of state security. They could tell you, but then they'd have to kill you.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577650#Comment_122577650

Sorry, I don't know.

Red Silurian

Somebody posted this to the politics forum…

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575897#Comment_122575897

They'll bring Eamonn back after he retires to do that so that he can get paid again.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577588#Comment_122577588

there seem to be 18 sheffield stands, each of which you'd be able to lock two bikes to. so the capacity would always have been 36, but the confusion was probably someone misintepreting a phrase along the lines of 'the shelter contains 18 bike stands'.

magicbastarder

this was posted in the thread on the cycling forum:

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577574#Comment_122577574

Excellent post

Thelonious Monk

Not sure how this is Ryan and the Green's fault, but people will blame them for everything. Whether there are Greens in Gov or not, people will still cycle to work. I worked in LH for a while and used to cycle in, there were plenty of places to park your bike anyway, you could even park it in the underground car park that politicians use at the back of Kildare House which is part of the houses of the Oireachtas. So this was never really needed in the first place, maybe some kind shelter but i could have made them one for 500 quid no problem.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577722#Comment_122577722

More likely to give him another hiding behind the bike shed 😊

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367344/leinster-house-bicycle-shed

Get a grip here:

Water meters: 1.5 billion

Voting Machines 150 million plus 15 m per annum for 25 years renting places to store the stuff

Thornton Hall 400 m

eircodes 40 m

failed integration of accounting systems in HSE 50 m

etc

so 336k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz1K9UCpLRo

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577726#Comment_122577726

I will caveat my post by commenting that it's within the realms of possibility that they placed the Sheffield stands too close together to allow two bikes to fit between them.

facehugger99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577324#Comment_122577324

Spoiler alert - absolutely nobody is going to get hung out for this.

The 'full review' will take months to complete and everything will have blown over by then with likely an election in the meantime. The ire of the general public will have moved onto some other issue.

No one will be held accountable, no lessons will be learned and the pissing away of billions of taxpayers money (of which this is just a minuscule part) will continue.

Great little country.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577761#Comment_122577761

Where are you getting those figures? The cost of the e voting machines was one third what you claim. The storage rental figure you've quoted is pure fantasy - the actual rental cost is less than 1% of the figure you've quoted.

The total cost of Thornton hall so far is about €50m, not €400m.

Kurooi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577761#Comment_122577761

That doesn't help though

SteM

Can anyone tell me why the voting machines are still in storage? Would it not be more cost effective to have them destroyed?

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577822#Comment_122577822

They're not.

They were scrapped.

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577443#Comment_122577443

I used to put a plastic bag over the saddle of mine to keep it dry.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577822#Comment_122577822

€54m voting machines scrapped for €9 each

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/54m-voting-machines-scrapped-for-9-each/26870212.html

John arse

Apparently the construction firm has been named as D.Forbes construction.