Cork city councillors query €361k spend on Fireman’s Rest

Councillors have continued to query the funding of the restoration of the Fireman’s Rest, the price of which has risen to €361,446.

A breakdown provided by the council to Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould last week described the project as “fully funded by Cork City Council”, and included €143,750 spent on metalwork repair restoration and recasting, as well as €4,600 for scaffolding, and €908 for photography.

This prompted concerns about the council’s priorities in terms of budgeting, but Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy explained that the money used for the hut had to be used for restoration.

“We were informed that commemoration grant money from central government was built up over several years and put aside,” he said.

A Cork City Council spokesperson told The Echo: “The refurbishment of the Fireman’s Rest necessitated a standard of conservation craftmanship that most general construction contractors do not possess.

“The project was based upon a competitively tendered works package and involved the careful, skilled dismantling of the existing structure, transport for stripping, blasting and casting of new panels, extensive repair of cracked cast iron panels, working with wrought iron, lead roofing, and stonemasonry to the new cut limestone plinth to replicate the initial scheme.

“The refurbishment is now complete, and it will be opened up to the public during scheduled events. Interpretation panels will be installed at a later point.

“A revenue provision was made in council budgets over a number of years to fund commemorations programme activity. Successful funding applications for central funding enabled the council to set aside monies from this provision that created a fund which was then used for this project when the Decade of Commemorations concluded.”

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, which provided the commemoration grants, told The Echo it “can confirm that no funding from its Decade of Centenaries programme allocation went to support works to the Fireman’s Rest in Cork city”.

However, a spokesperson explained: “Each year during the Decade of Centenaries programme, the minister approved a funding allocation to each local authority to develop commemorative programmes, specific to their locality, to mark the often sensitive and complex events of the period 1912-1923.

“All initiatives funded through this allocation were required to be in keeping with the principles of commemorations established by the expert advisory group (EAG) on centenary commemorations.

“The decisions regarding the inclusion of initiatives within a local authority’s programme were a matter for the individual local authorities, who the EAG recognised were best-placed to decide what was appropriate for their communities guided by their local knowledge and expertise.

“Many local authorities, understanding the real interest and engagement from their communities, chose to supplement this allocation from their own resources and fund additional projects relevant to the themes and events of the programme.

“These projects, including the Fireman’s Rest, were a matter for the local authority and did not receive support from the department.”

Labour Party councillor Peter Horgan, who was not yet a member of the council at the time the restoration was signed off on, said: “I reiterate that answers are needed on this large spend. It needs to be explained on who signed off the final spend, who wanted this project, and who [were] the cheerleaders for it.

“It is an obscene amount of money when I have projects such as additional playgrounds and public toilets being squeezed into ‘either-or’ situations.”