The Green Party were very annoyed, yesterday afternoon, that some in the media appeared to be conjuring a link between Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Transport, and what is presumably the most expensive bike shed in human history:
Isn't it funny how the Greens get blamed for things that have nothing to do with us?
— Green Party Ireland (@greenparty_ie) September 3, 2024
Nobody in the Green Party signed off on this shed. Time the media held the right people to account. pic.twitter.com/bakKPQ6fOT
We should, of course, take the Greens at their word on this one. Eamon Ryan is the Minister for Transport, not the Minister for Public Works. There is no reason to imagine that either he or his department would have been involved in the construction of a bike shelter at Leinster House.
But that leaves us with a question: Who did?
One of the most persistent qualities of the Irish public spending scandal is that it is almost impossible, at any stage, to get a name for the person who sanctioned the spending of whatever money was wasted, or overspent, or otherwise went awry. The most we have gotten thus far, by way of answer, is that the work was carried out by the Office of Public Works (OPW):
The annual budget of the OPW is a not inconsiderable seven hundred million euros. An expenditure of circa €350,000 amounts to about half of one per cent of the annual budget. But that’s a bigger amount than you might think: If every single half of one per cent of the budget had to be signed off by a Minister, then that Minister would be making 200 decisions on spending every year. Is that entirely unreasonable or unrealistic? People may differ, but I’d be inclined to think “no”.
The Minister in question is Fine Gael’s Kieran O’Donnell, who has responsibility for the OPW. The other person we might point the finger at is Mr. John Conlon, who was appointed as civil service head of the OPW in April. We do not know what Mr. Conlon is paid, but his predecessor in the same role was earning about €211,000 annually. Between them, these two men are responsible for the department’s €700m budget. One might imagine that one of them might take the blame?
One would, alas, be imagining incorrectly, if so.
Yesterday, Minister O’Donnell announced an enquiry into how money from his own Department was spent, and why this project in particular was so expensive. But surely the review should not stop there?
It might be worth asking, for example, why it took media exposure for the Department to realise that this was an issue worth looking into in the first place? As Jason noted yesterday, this is hardly the first case of excessive spending by the OPW, which surely makes the case for a wider review of projects under the Department’s control. Like RTE, there’s at least a reasonable chance that the golden bike shed is merely the tip of a considerable iceberg.
It might also be worth asking for the name of the Department official who signed off on the project. Not necessarily so that that person might be sacked or otherwise disciplined, but so that the public might have an idea of who, and at what rank, the people with authority to sign off on such projects are. Is it really a good idea to have a system where hundreds of thousands can be spent without a Minister knowing about it (assuming that none did?)
Another thing we could ask is about the political culture within the Government: Simon Harris has been doing another round of his patented furrowed-brow press conferences on the subject, in the manner of a schoolmaster who’s more disappointed than angry in his students. But surely in a Government, the culture starts from the top? Shouldn’t he also be holding a whole-of-government review into how well his Ministers are overseeing public monies – which is, at the end of the day, the whole reason Ministers exist?
You might argue – might – that €350,000 is an amount of money that should be below the notice of Ministers, but you’d be making an argument that only an idiot should believe. After all, aren’t these the same Ministers who take pride in announcing €10,000 grants in every constituency in the country for sports clubs and schools? Here’s the Minister for Education, for example, brimming with pride while announcing a grant of €4,000 to an after-school club in Athy.
Are we to really believe that Ministers are taking those decisions – a few thousand here or there to buy votes – but have no imput at all into spending decisions hundreds of thousands of euros greater than that?
There are but two possibilities: Either the Government is treated by the civil service like children, and allowed to hand out sweeties here and there while the big decisions are kept to the Sirs Humphrey, or on the other hand there is a Minister somewhere who is fundamentally incompetent. One could not rule out either scenario.
In any case, watch over the next few days as the name of the person who ultimately signed off on the €350,000 stubbornly refuses to emerge. But be assured: Lessons will be learned, processes will be put in place, and more stern press conferences will be delivered.
Next, they’ll tell you they can build houses on the cheap.