'Abolish the OPW - its main function is wasting our money'

Its spending is out of control, it's a law unto itself and the latest scandal shows it has learned nothing. - shut it down and start afresh

First came the €336,000 shelter, then the €1.5m hut and now the €600,000 PR contract to spin all the bad news away.

The most recent scandal about money-wasting at the Office of Public Works shows it has learned nothing, and will keep at it until it’s caught out.

The Irish Mirror exclusive - about the OPW’s €600k tender for communications gurus to make them look good in a crisis - is reckless throwing of good money after bad. It only did a u-turn and pulled the contract after we revealed it had been advertised.

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Its spending is out of control, it exists in a culture of squander, and it’s such a law unto itself that not even the Taoiseach can identify who signs off on what.

For all of these reasons, the OPW should be abolished.

It would make more financial sense to wind it up in its current form and start afresh with a new body to do what is an important job - managing state property and heritage sites. But it must be managed at a cost that’s right and reasonable and shows the country puts a value on public money. Not with evident casual contempt for Other People’s Wages.

All we know for now about spending at the OPW is likely the tip of the iceberg. It’s a money pit, it’s opaque - so shut it down.

I’m not the first to think it’s the correct course of action. We should have taken heed of the gardai, when their representative body called for the OPW to be dissolved 15 years ago.

Back in 2009, GRA president Michael O’Boyce said the OPW’s work on garda stations was “an unmitigated disaster” and urged the Government to abolish it. He fumed: “They continue to squander public money with no concept of value.”

Some of the examples he listed were as bad as the bike shelter and the hut - and these figures are from quite some time ago, so you can multiply them in today’s money.

O’Boyce said a quote of €5,000 was submitted by a contractor to refurbish a gym in Letterkenny station, but this rose to €15,000 when the OPW took over the project. He added: “€1,100 to replace three bulbs in a Garda station; €4,500 for 10 square yards of linoleum in Churchill Garda station.” Another example was €16,500 on a shower in a 30- year-old PortaKabin in Ballinhassig; and €36,000 spent replacing a garage door.

Who is accountable? This madness is going back three decades at least and it’s high time it ended. Even the Government politicians know it’s off the wall. Taoiseach Simon Harris called the bike spend “inexplicable and inexcusable” and added: “It annoys people. It annoys me.”

Micheal Martin said the Department of Finance’s €1.43m security hut was “ridiculous” and called for a review of the OPW. “There’s no need for that level of expenditure. I was shocked to hear that figure. We need a fundamental review of what’s happening there and full transparency of the actual breakdown of costs,” said the Tanaiste.

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said the cost was “deeply frustrating” at a time Ministers were fighting for every cent in the budget. They’re sounding like the Opposition, rather than the parties who run the country. The OPW has clearly been given a free rein for too long.

Ireland has a long history of public money fiascos, from the €1.8n Dail printer to the €55m e-voting machines. It's time for zero tolerance for state offices that waste public money, when there are so many social issues that badly need funding.

Pull the plug on the prodigal OPW, even if it means abolition and reform.

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