The body that runs Leinster House is set to spend almost €190,000 on a fitness instructor to help keep TDs, Senators and staff in shape over the next four years.
Tenders are being sought for a contract, worth an estimated €188,640, for an instructor to operate and manage the Houses of the Oireachtas Service Fitness Room.
The tender states that the contract works out at €3,390 per month (ex VAT) over the course of the initial two year contract, with options to extend for two further one year periods. “Tenderers must understand that this figure is an estimate only based on current and future expected usage,” the notice states.
The documentation states that there are 160 members of Dáil Éireann, which will increase to 174 after the next general election, along with 60 Senators.
The tender states a fitness room opened to members and staff working at Leinster House in 2005 “for the purpose of offering a healthy recreational outlet to counterbalance some of the negative lifestyle aspects of working long irregular hours in the Parliament”.
The fitness room is located in the lower ground floor of Kildare House on Kildare Street and is fitted out with treadmills, cross-trainers, exercise bikes and rowers. There is also resistance-training equipment such as leg and abdominal machines, free weights and benches, and multifunctional rehabilitation machines.
The tender states the machines have been installed recently and were bought new in the middle of last month and that gym also has four plasma screens.
About 1,000 people could potentially use the facility, the document states, with space for 12 to 15 people to comfortably use the room at any one time. The average number of users on a monthly basis is approximately 145, it adds.
The fitness room is open for 18½ hours per week periods when the Oireachtas is not sitting and 27½ hours per week when it is. The peak periods are mornings and lunchtimes, when the fitness room would usually operate at maximum capacity.
However, the tender states that the Oireachtas Service has the exclusive right to review and change the opening hours of the facility unilaterally. Any reduction or increase in the opening hours would result in a reduction or increase in the number of hours paid for.
The tender states the appointed fitness instructor will be responsible for all aspects of the on site management and operation of the gym, and that suitable personalised training programmes are to be developed for users, including group classes if feasible. The instructor is to also assess the training needs of users and conduct induction courses for new visitors.
The deadline for submission of tenders is October 25th.
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