Minister Helen McEntee has defended the €127,000 bike shed at University Hospital Kerry, insisting it went through ‘proper procurement’ channels.
According to documents obtained by the Kerryman newspaper, the HSE considered several smaller bike sheds, ranging from €6,920 to €10,650, but believed they did not ‘satisfy the needs’ of the hospital.
The 40-space bike shed, which is only for use by hospital staff, came about following a joint project between the HSE, the hospital and the National Transport Authority in 2023.
It comes as the HSE will have to roll back spending on recruitment, temporary staffing and overtime as it overspent its budget by €250million in the first three months of this year.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms McEntee said that while ‘nobody agrees’ with the decision to construct a bike shelter in Leinster House at a cost of €336,000, the latest project in Tralee ‘went through the procurement process and the proper guidelines’.
Sinn Féin Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said it amounted to ‘another slap in the face to ordinary workers’ at a time when recruitment is being banned in some sectors of the HSE.
‘Healthcare workers are being told there is no money. Vacancies go unfilled. Staff worked to exhaustion. Patients waiting longer. Children waiting months for assessments,’ he said.
Mr Doherty told Ms McEntee: ‘You examined options costing €7,000, €10,000, €21,000. But you chose the option that was 20 times dearer.’
Ms McEntee pointed to increased investment in the health sector and said ‘we cannot have a situation where money is being spent where there is no accountability as to where it is going within our health service or anywhere else as well’.
Mr Doherty replied that the problem is that ‘there is no accountability’.
‘Let’s call this what it is: not bad luck. Not an oversight. Pure waste. But your Government keeps doing it – and nobody is ever held accountable,’ he said.
The Irish Daily Mail reported on Thursday that health chiefs are to be called before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the enormous spend on the 40-space shelter.
Speaking at the PAC on Thursday, chairman John Brady said he was ‘flabbergasted’ at the ‘extravagant’ cost of the new cycle shed ‘when people are really being hammered with car parking charges at hospitals, as we’ve discussed, and I think the public will be rightfully shocked and horrified’.
Mr Brady said the PAC needs to see ‘all the documents’ relating to the decision, to see ‘why they went with the most expensive option’.
The HSE has defended the huge cost, which totalled €127,385, despite hospital managers being presented with options that cost as little as €6,920.
A survey of staff at the hospital found there was a need for more spaces for staff to park their bikes, which led to the installation of the ‘UHK Cycle Hub’. Images captured by the Mail on Wednesday show the steel and glass building, coloured purple and blue, which keeps bikes locked and secure indoors.
The HSE has said that it chose the most expensive option as it believed it best met the needs of the hospital, served its purpose and addressed security and ‘accessibility’ concerns.
A breakdown of the cost by space equates to €3,184 per bike rack. The Kerryman reported that €49,990 was spent on steel works while the bike racks cost €7,800. VAT on the project came to €13,292, ground works cost €39,363, and electrical work, including CCTV, came to €16,940. One option presented to the hospital board was a 40-bike shelter with a ‘hinged padlock door and toast rack’, costing €21,090.
No public tender is available for the UHK ‘cycle hub’ bike shelter on the Government’s e-tender website, suggesting the project may have been procured through an existing building framework within the HSE.
A spokeswoman said the option of an ‘enclosed bike shelter’, at a cost of €127,000, ‘addresses crucial concerns around safety, security and accessibility’.
