From electronic voting to the infamous Dáil printer, the Government has a history of overspending that would put the bike shed to shame. 

The Government was in hot water last week after it was revealed a bike shed at Leinster House cost €335,000. 

The shed can store 18 bikes and a breakdown of its cost from the Office of Public Works (OPW) revealed that €3,000 was spent on archaeological services. 

A further €11,000 was paid for quantity surveying costs, while €222,282 was spent on the main construction and installation. 

This isn’t the first time the Irish Government’s spending habits have been questioned, however. 

Journalist and author Séamas O’Reilly took some time to remember all the Government’s questionable spending. 

“I feel like I’ve heard this story so many times,” he told The Hard Shoulder. “How many times has this happened?” 

He said the bike shed cost shouldn’t even count as “shocking” anymore. 

“Can you be shocked by something that happens with startling regularity?” 

A particular favourite of Mr O’Reilly’s was when a new Komori printer was bought for Leinster House. 

“It was a very fancy printer,” he said. “I have no doubt people in the Dáil would need a good printer, a reliable printer. 

“But they decided to go for one so fancy that it could be constructed in Ireland.” 

A Komori GL-429 printer | Image: Komori Corporation

The printer was made in the UK before it was brought to Ireland and stored off-site until it was brought to Leinster House. 

They quickly realised their new printer would not fit through the doors. 

“Luckily, they had a plan,” Mr O’Reilly said. “Tear down walls, go into the crevice that had been in the wall space, add reinforced steel beams and then finally bring the printer in.” 

This ordeal overall cost €2 million – or “six bike shelters”, according to Mr O’Reilly’s calculations. 

Better than a bike shed?

Another botched spend was the attempt to introduce electronic voting machines in 2002. 

The machines were trialled in three constituencies in the 2002 general election and in seven constituencies in the 2002 referendum on the Nice Treaty. 

The machines didn’t last, however, largely due to concerns around regulation. 

“The paper trail wasn’t great,” Mr O’Reilly said. “They were unsafe from the point of being reliable, they could be tampered with.” 

Therefore, the project was scrapped – after costing the Government €54 million. 

“That is 162 Leinster House bike shelters,” Mr O’Reilly said. 

It wasn’t all loss though – after sitting in storage for years, the machines were sold for scraps at roughly €9 per machine. 

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