The cost per square metre of building the Leinster House bike shed came in at about twice what it would typically cost to build a five-star hotel in Ireland and more than four times the price a high-end house would cost to build, according to an architect who assessed the project.
And at a cost of €336,000, the bike shed ended up being about 200 times more expensive than a flat-back bike shelter of roughly the same size that can be bought online, although that would require self-assembly.
“It probably cost around €11,000 per square metre while a luxury hotel would cost €3,000-€6,000 per square metre,” the architect who assessed the work for The Irish Times suggested.
The architect, who asked to remain anonymous, said “you could build a very good house for about €3,000 a square metre. I can understand why they wouldn’t have built a real cheapo bike shed but at this price it seems a bit crazy,” he said.
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He said it could be hard for people to fully grasp the scale of the overruns at the children’s hospital which has cost more than €2 billion, with the final bill yet to be determined, but said people would more easily understand the scale of overspending on what should have been a simple bike shed.
“When you look at the children’s hospital and the runaway costs, it is a farce but that project was full of surprises. This on the other hand is a very simple design and there should have been no surprises.”
If the bike shed had not been built and if the money had been invested in property around the country instead, it would have gone considerably further.
The €336,000 would have bought a five-bedroom, 233sq m house with large gardens front and back – sufficiently large to accommodate many hundreds of bicycles – a short ride from the Leitrim town of Drumshanbo, with €1,000 in change to buy at least two decent bikes.
A three-bedroom bungalow in Portrane, Co Dublin with a lovely sun terrace and a large garden to the rear, meanwhile, could have been bought with a hefty €15,000 left over. If the Government wanted to be within striking distance of the Dáil, it could have invested the money in a bijou 37sq m one-bed apartment in Sandymount while an apartment of twice that size just off Quay Street is also on the market for more than €10,000 less than the bike shed.
But, of course, people don’t typically buy houses outright and the €336,000 could have been split in to 10 tranches and handily covered the deposit for these four properties plus another six.
The money that was spent on the bike shed could have made up the deposit for 44 bedrooms in 10 houses spread across the country and if we assume half those bedrooms were shared between two people and the others for a sole occupant, the money could have provided permanent homes for 64 people.
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