With Mount Merrion’s Fourteen Steps and the Swanky Ramps of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown being the latest glorious addition to our growing collection of significantly overpriced landmarks, Ireland is now well placed as a must-visit destination for international students of profligacy in the public realm.
It is only a matter of time before they descend on the capital city, maps in hand, doing their equivalent of a Bloomsday odyssey by visiting, in chronological order, the most celebrated examples of wild spending on State projects.
What cost overrun is delightfully underwhelming everyone this time?
As Martin Wall reported in this newspaper on Monday, it is the recently renovated entrance to a suburban park in Mount Merrion, where steps and access ramps have been installed for the monumental cost of €753,528.
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The Sinn Féin leader was keen to welcome our latest urban wonder when Micheál Martin returned from his global travels on Wednesday.
“So. Here we are again, Taoiseach. Your Government never tires of wasting money.”
Mary Lou McDonald was thrilled to revisit a subject close to her heart – the alleged wasting of public money.
“Three-quarters of a million forked out from the public purse ... downright insulting ... you’re serial wasters ... no oversight, governance, accountability ... no one shouting stop ... scandalous.”
These 14 steps and the swanky ramps have already taken their place in the pantheon of improvidence.
“The list of waste is as long as your arm,” marvelled Mary Lou, before helpfully remembering some of the highlights.
The bike shed, the security hut, the perimeter wall, the rent paid on empty offices, the scanner lying idle in the National Gallery.
She forgot the printer.
But not the Public Accounts Committee pointing to “serious and persistent deficiencies in spending oversight” from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sports.
“I could go on but I would be here all day.”
And it’s not like she won’t have plenty more days to go on about it.
The Taoiseach was back from a big trip to Brazil via South Africa and Angola, where he rubbed shoulders with world leaders and discussed matters of global significance. Now he was discussing matters of municipal importance in Dublin.
It’s the little things that count.
“I don’t believe €750,000 is right, proper or appropriate for 14 steps,” said Micheál. But he also believes that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s project involved more than putting in a few steps and a swanky ramp.
“Nonetheless, the cost is excessive by any yardstick.”
But not to worry.
“We will deal with it.”
The OPW is going to erect a plaque beside The Fourteen Steps of Mount Merrion, and the Swanky Ramp of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown will get its own stop on the Hop-On Hop-Off tourist bus network.
No point in getting worked up over some minor municipal scheme. The Taoiseach is long enough in the politics game to know that.
He has developed a thick skin over the years.
Only joking. He didn’t become the most successful Irish politician of his generation by being thick-skinned.
So when the Labour leader raised the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) taking the Government to task for “budgeting like there’s no tomorrow”, he wasn’t fretting about something else entirely.
[ Coalition ‘budgeting like there’s no tomorrow’, warns fiscal watchdogOpens in new window ]
Ivana Bacik must have been pleased to see Micheál back in the hot seat at Leaders’ Questions because Opposition leaders were quite miffed on Tuesday when he didn’t turn up, as they were under the impression he would.
The Taoiseach got stuck in immediately to the charge that his Government is playing fast and loose with the national finances and hasn’t got a fiscal plan in place beyond next year.
“Could I just say in terms of the Ifac criticism, because you’ve had both sides ...”
He stopped to welcome some transition year students to the public gallery before being struck by a very important thought.
“By the way, your party was notified on Friday that I wouldn’t be here yesterday – at 2.30 by email. There was a bit of, maybe, inadvertent misleading of the House yesterday but we’ll pass over that.”
Not that he cares or anything, like.
As for that Ifac report, the Government will be submitting a medium-term plan to Europe shortly, as is required.
Furthermore, “we need both downside and upside scenarios in terms of economic planning.”
Roderic O’Gorman, in one of his rare chances to contribute as the Green Party’s sole TD on the Opposition benches, used his time to address “the growing levels of hate in Irish society”.
The Taoiseach wholeheartedly agreed that there was a real, serious issue facing society about “the level of hate out there”, particularly online. It has led to physical attacks, even murder. People have been targeted for reasons such as their gender or ethnic background.
The hate directed at the political world is “at a level that I’ve never experienced in my life” he added.
“This is something we did not have to deal with to this extent five years ago. It is above party politics.”
He will consult the Government to see what action can be taken to “tackle the algorithms” driving this mindset.
All of which leads us to Holly Cairns, the leader of the Social Democrats.
She raised the same topic and asked the same two questions for the second day in a row. Her fellow Opposition leaders, Mary Lou McDonald and Ivana Bacik, also referred to this subject on Tuesday – the UN-designated (drawing a veil over the medieval attitudes of some member states) International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
[ Laws on use of counselling notes in rape trials will be changed, Government saysOpens in new window ]
If truth be told, it is much easier to chart the usual knockabout exchanges in the Dáil than to have to write yet again about the latest government’s sincerely stated response to violence against women. Bike sheds and public spending overruns. Rows over the management of the economy. The spats over what Government member should be in the chamber taking Leaders’ Questions. That sort of thing.
Roderic O’Gorman’s question was timely and important.
But unlike the bile-filled, across-the-board bigotry fuelled by internet algorithms, the continuing and seemingly escalating plague of hate and violence against women is not a thing which just sprang up in the last five years.
Holly stood up on Tuesday and Wednesday and talked of the “depravity” of the attacks on women in recent days which have shocked the country. She told the Taoiseach she did not get satisfactory answers to her two questions on Tuesday when Darragh O’Brien was his stand-in, so she was asking them again.
Why do nine counties not have a refuge space for women and when will these places be provided?
Will the Government ensure that the counselling notes of women in rape and sexual assault trials are not “weaponised” against them or, better still, ban them outright?
“To be fair to the Minister, he is advancing and working at pace in respect of legislation on the disclosure of counselling ...” said the Taoiseach, before reading out improved but less than encouraging statistics on how the Government’s “zero tolerance” policy is working out.
Holly heckled as he read out his reply, clearly frustrated.
“Maybe you should engage with the Minister in an informed and evidence-based way,” he told her.
“I did,” she replied.
Sigh.
