Sir, – The latest revelations concerning public expenditure would be almost comical were it not for the staggering sums of taxpayers’ money involved.
We learn that the National Transport Authority proposes to place 500 electric bicycles, costing approximately €1 million, into storage for 18 months while planning to purchase hundreds more.
Meanwhile, Dublin’s Natural History Museum, closed since 2024, may not reopen until the 2030s. More than €3.6 million has already been expended, substantial building works remain years away and the ultimate bill could reportedly reach €100 million.
And who could forget the €335,000 bicycle shelter at Leinster House?
RM Block
What is perhaps most extraordinary is not simply the expenditure, but the apparent absence of commercial realism, urgency and, above all, personal accountability.
In the private sector, those responsible for decisions of this nature would face searching questions and potentially serious consequences. Yet within our public administration, responsibility appears so widely dispersed that nobody is ultimately answerable.
We are repeatedly assured that procedures have been followed, reviews undertaken and lessons learned. But where are the consequences? Where is the accountability? And who, precisely, is exercising the most basic judgment on behalf of the taxpayer?
The OPW, the NTA and the various departments overseeing these projects owe the public considerably more than explanations after the event.
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Ireland does not lack public money so much as it appears to lack sufficient regard for how that money is spent.
Surely it is time to ask whether the structures intended to safeguard the public purse have themselves become part of the problem. – Yours, etc.,
Peter Lynch,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.
