The absence of spending safeguards identified in an audit into the Leinster House bike shed controversy must never be repeated, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly.<\/p>\n
Deputy Farrelly, who sits on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is shocking, but not surprising, that the audit published today by Deloitte confirms there was no value for money evaluation carried out on this project, which cost taxpayers a whopping \u20ac335,000. In fact, the report found that this has also been the case with certain public projects valued below \u20ac500,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a value for money evaluation had been carried out on the bike shelter, the Office of Public Works (OPW) would have had to outline the reasons for these eyewatering figures. It could also have considered lower cost alternatives, or even decided\u00a0not to proceed with the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the justifiable public outcry that greeted the bike shed cost revelations last year, it is crucial that the government learns lessons from the serious shortcomings identified in today\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report\u2019s finding that there was \u2018an absence of fundamental good practice\u2019 is particularly damning. Urgent safeguards must be put in place by the government to tackle weak controls, the absence of cost benefit analysis and lack of accountability when it comes to the wasteful spending of public funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I will be seeking to have this issue added to our agenda as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 15, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The absence of spending safeguards identified in an audit into the Leinster House bike shed controversy must never be repeated, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly. Deputy Farrelly, who sits on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said: \u201cIt is shocking, but not surprising, that the audit published today by Deloitte confirms there was no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,661,692,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aidan-farrelly","category-opw","category-pac","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n