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That Other Half Billion…
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The Government’s announcement of €500m in cutbacks reminds me of that other €500m that was in the news lately – the overspend on the Ballymun Regeneration Project. What if that €500 million were somehow refound and used to tackle the Government’s current budgetary problems? Problem solved. You would be forgiven for thinking.
The news that the Ballymun Regeneration Project was six years behind schedule and a half billion over budget emerged in a Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report earlier this year which revealed that building contracts in the regeneration effort were running approximately 18% over the agreed amounts, changes to building regulations were adding to construction costs and unforeseen circumstances (of that kind that, no matter how often they’ve happened in the past, they’re always unforeseen) were lurking around every corner: asbestos was found in some of the tower blocks; service lines were incorrectly mapped, and so on. (Incidentally, the €500 million figure didn’t take into account that about €100 million’s worth of work was actually cut from the original plan.)
A Public Accounts Committee hearing on the matter just over a month ago might have been expected to shed some light on how a project could have careened so out of control for such a long time without anyone appearing to realise (or, it would seem, notice) that things weren’t what they might be, but it didn’t. After some brave attempts by Fianna Fail’s John Curran to bring a sense of gravity and concern to the proceedings, various officials from the Department of the Environment were subsequently tossed softballs by Curran’s fellow committee members. Nothing was discovered, nothing was revealed, nothing was learnt. It was an extraordinary spectacle. (The following day, the newspapers reported on Roisin Shortall’s softballs to the civil servants and not on the overrun itself.)
The official report on the Committee’s findings is due to be published in September. The only member of the Committee who might be expected to inject the urgent tone the report ought to have – Curran – will not be contributing: he’s been promoted to a Junior Ministerial position which precludes him from contributing to PAC reports. The unofficial (but reliable) word back is that the Committee’s report will not be critical of, perhaps, the greatest case of incompetence, ineptitude and service delivery chaos in the history of the State.
Mind you it’s hard to beat the luas:
original 288m —> 800m+, work only started proper around the date is was promised to open, and in the end, they left out the small matter of bringing the green line across the liffey to meet the red line as originally envisaged and as would have to be the case with any sane transport network.
“The unofficial (but reliable) word back is that the Committee’s report will not be critical of, perhaps, the greatest case of incompetence, ineptitude and service delivery chaos in the history of the State.”
No there certainly wont be any black marks against anyone for this neither the PMs who managed it, the folks who conducted the tender or the govt. that oversaw it. The greatest case of incompetence in the history of the state. I wonder what would the top 3 be:
Luas, Ballymun, Planning (or not) the Dublin commuter belt.
What are the other contenders?
Not forgetting 120+ surplus TD’s; 20 surplus Ministers & their support Departments;
the Bertie Bowl; the Government jet & helicopter; the €200K for de Bert’s new office; Farmleigh House (for Bert’s mistress’s hairdressing business promotions); the €400 a week on Bertie’s haircuts & facials;
Haughey’s state funeral;
the non-contributory pensions; the state cars and drivers for ex-taoisig; the endless trips abroad - Patrick’s day etc…;
the tent at the Galway Races; the state cars & drivers and their vast overtime; the multiple pensions for one job;
the compensation payments that Woods underwrote for his mates in the Catholic Hierarchy;
the overtime costs of the Gardai & prison officers;
everything that Martin Cullen and Mary O’Rourke had a hand in - the electronic voting system; the sale of Eircom; the Luas; the road system (for which the EU & Germany paid 50%); CIE; and then there was the Millennium damp squib…..
There are photographs of Robert Mugabe’s palace in Zimbabwe doing the rounds.
Leinster House refurbishment & Abbeville were not too dissimilar.
It is what people from dirt-poor backgrounds waste money on when they seize the reins of power - or come by easy, bookies’ money - or thieving & drugs.
And it has ever been thus.
It will always be the same.
Whoever replaces Mugabe will want the palace & the trappings.
It’s called Human Nature.
SOS,
Like the thoroughness of your response. good list there.
the tent at the Galway Races - Thats a misfile if you put it in incompetence. That goes under corruption.
“It is what people from dirt-poor backgrounds waste money on when they seize the reins of power - or come by easy, bookies’ money - or thieving & drugs.” Sweet Jesus wept. What a sentiment! Not like folks of good breeding eh wot?
The sale of Eircom - now there is one to consider.
Port Tunnel if it turns out we’re going to move the port. (we could have moved the port by now and saved the tunnel money to upgrade the M50)
dan ditto, thought the jack lynch tunnel and the port tunnel could join together. Good example of doing the wrong thing twice but to be fair the dutch spent nearly 10 years building a tunnel for a tram under the hague and the damn thing was always flooding and slumping but it does look good now though.