The knife continues to be wielded on a daily basis at City Hall as vital services such as housing maintenance continue to be subjected to cuts. At the same time, the city’s refuse service has just being privatised and householders can now expect to pay a lot more for a poorer service while waivers will soon be a thing of the past regardless of your personal circumstances or income. However while this slashing of expenditure goes on relentlessly, there seems to be no shortage of cash when it comes to junkets, so-called VIPs or frivolity. A case in point is the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last May.
Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan condemned the “wanton waste of public money” surrounding the visit and put down a series of probing questions to the City Manager at a recent council meeting, seeking to get to the bottom of the expenditure. The answers to his questions were astonishing with the following expenditure being uncovered:
· A fast-tracking of €40,031 on capital improvement to the Princes Street Market in advance of the queen’s 15 minute jaunt through the market.
· €87,439 spent on special road works and cleansing in addition to the cost of sealing drains, manholes and culverts in case terrorists might lurk in them.
· €70,000 on floral and hedging displays, environmental improvements and enhancement of the visual environment (putting up hoardings to hide derelict sites, painting over graffiti, etc)
· €5,000 on a once-off website for the visit which is now redundant.
· €30,380 on producing press packs and providing media facilities to local and visiting press and television.
· €786.50 for a silver brooch and some leather-bound books for the queen
· €90,195.46 on staging street events, music and producing a video.
· €2,344 for hospitality (presumably food and drink) for visiting “dignitaries” including the Mayor of Swansea and government ministers.
That’s a total of €326,133.46 on the visit, which does not include expenditure at national level such as garda overtime, security, etc.
Then there is the now infamous sky-garden designed by “celebrity” gardener Diarmuid Gavin which Cork City Council has already spent in the region of €400,000 in purchasing, on top of almost €750,000 of taxpayers’ money spent by Fáilte Ireland. The garden, which is now covered in tufts of grass and weeds, is lying redundant and starting to rust in the Showgrounds while the council decide what to do with it. Meanwhile the City Manager has refused to disclose documentation on the deal with Gavin which was sought by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information. Cllr. Tynan has pledged to pursue the matter when at the next meeting of the city council.
