Minister accused of ‘tone deaf’ defence of €127,000 bike shed at hospital

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

A €127,000 bike shed at a Kerry hospital “went through proper guidelines”, the Defence Minister has said.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty accused the Government of being “serial wasters of public money” as he criticised the €127,000 in expenditure on a bike shed at University Hospital Kerry.

Doherty told minister Helen McEntee in the Dáil on Thursday: “Another day, another bike shed scandal – and not for the first time involving your Government.”

The Sinn Féin finance spokesman said €336,000 was spent on a bike shed at Leinster House and almost €100,000 on a bike shed at Holles Street Hospital.

He said: “And now we have another bike shed: €127,000 for a bike shed at University Hospital Kerry.

“Another slap in the face to the ordinary people right across this country, workers and families who are already at breaking point – and this comes at the exact time that you’re imposing a recruitment embargo across parts of the health service.”

Doherty accused the Government of seeing no problem with a “designer bike shed” when there were “vastly cheaper options available” – including less than €7,000.

McEntee said hospitals have to “stick to” budgets that are set, adding that “nobody agrees” with what happened with the Leinster House bike shed.

She said the Office of Public Works had put in new measures “to make sure that something like that can’t happen again”.

The Fine Gael deputy leader said the Government was “absolutely determined that every cent” of the €105.4 billion health budget goes “directly to those who need it” but added there was a need for balance in encouraging active travel and investing in communities.

She told the Dáil: “With the project that you’ve mentioned in question, it went through the procurement process, it went through the proper guidelines, and what was delivered was what was decided was needed for the hospital in the place that it was located.”

Doherty said McEntee’s response was “tone deaf”.

He said: “People are sick to the teeth of your Government, which are serial wasters of public money, spending money over and over again on vanity projects.”