Watch: €1.4million security hut is ‘indefensible’ waste of money – Doherty

Donegal TD Pearse Doherty has hit out at the OPW’s €1.429 million expenditure on security hut at the Department of Finance.

This revelation, on top of the bike shed at Leinster House costing €336,000, sent more shockwaves nationwide.

Deputy Doherty, who is the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, said the “government is incompetent when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money and getting value for money.”

“Don’t even get me started on the National Children’s Hospital,” Deputy Doherty said in a video outside the Department of Finance yesterday.

He said: “There are community groups and sports clubs right across the state forced to scrimp and save and in desperate need of support.

“Yet here we have the state, under the watch of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, squandering €336,000 on bike sheds and security huts of almost €1.5m, and that’s before you consider the runaway train that is the National Children’s Hospital, the most expensive hospital in the world, which is coming in at €2.2bn and rising.

“There is no leadership from Simon Harris’ government – they refuse to take responsibility for the squandering of public money under their watch.

“The bike shed was someone else’s fault. The Children’s Hospital was someone else’s fault. By this government’s logic, I can only assume that the €1.429m security hut was also someone else’s fault.”