Sir , – What a surprise to hear the Minister for Further and Higher Education, James Lawless, announce on national radio that the Government is the “guardian of the public purse”.
Really? The facts indicate otherwise: A bike shelter costing €335,000 and €1.43 million spent on a security hut.
The cost of the national children’s hospital is ballooning, with still no end in sight. A perimeter wall at the WRC doubled from €245,000 to €490,000.
Approximately €40 million has been frittered on abandoned IT projects.
RM Block
Approximately €22 million spent on non-functional ventilators during Covid-19. A Dáil photocopier costing €808,000 which was too large to fit into the room allocated for it, thereby necessitating building work.
€530 million spent on the MetroLink and hardly a sod turned. And on it goes.
If this is an indicator of guardianship of the public purse, then I’ll happily eat my bicycle helmet. – Yours, etc,
AILEEN HOOPER,
Stoneybatter,
Dublin 7.
