The projected cost of providing rapid-build accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine has more than doubled since the project was first envisaged in 2022.
The State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), said in a report on Monday that the estimated cost of each modular unit had risen from €200,000 to potentially about €442,000 now.
It said that in June 2024 the State was also facing bills of more than €600,000 for storing manufactured modular units, of which about €300,000 had been paid.
The report also said a credible and long-term use for the units had been seen as key to the rapid-build housing programme representing value for money. However, it said while the Department of Integration had identified several possible uses for the units after their requirement for Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection was over, “no specific long-term use has yet been determined”.
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Separately the report found that a Revenue Commissioners’ tax assessment that retailer Dunnes Stores owed the State more than €36 million in respect of levies charged on plastic bags was ultimately settled for a €5 million payment.
The C&AG report said that following a legal process that went all the way to the Supreme Court and an appeal to the Tax Appeals Commission, Revenue reviewed an assessment it had originally made a decade earlier and concluded it had been overstated.
By this stage Revenue had the benefit of Dunnes Stores’ analysis of the assessment, the report said. For various reasons, including that the assessment had included tax on bags that Dunnes had already paid, the amount sought from the retailer was reduced by more than three-quarters, to €8.5 million.
When the Tax Appeals Commission ruled in 2023 that the liability was €8.5 million, Dunnes said it would appeal the decision to the High Court while making an offer to settle for €5 million. Revenue, after being legally advised to settle given the “litigation risk” involved in going to court, eventually did so for the amount offered.
The C&AG’s report on spending in a number of State organisations also revealed that an interim chief at the Peter McVerry Trust was paid at a rate of €1,000 per day from the budget of the Department of Housing before a permanent appointment was made last April.
The report maintained that the State had now written off €225 million spent on preparations for three large transport projects – Metro North, Metro West and the Dart interconnector tunnel – which were ultimately scrapped. It also said the plan to reintroduce the freight rail line to the port of Foynes “identified a high level of noncompliance with the [public service spending] code”.
The revelations will be interrogated by the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee in the months ahead.
Committee chairman Brian Stanley said: “As Cathaoirleach, I am concerned about protecting the taxpayers’ considerable investment in school buildings and facilities. Just over €7 billion was invested through the Department of Education in the schools’ estate in the 10-year period up to the end of 2023.
“The C&AG found that the State’s capital investment in the provision of some new schools or extensions has not been formally secured due to the absence of effective and appropriate legal agreements with patron bodies.”
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