Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

The public is sick to the teeth of this. The Minister stands there and defends €127,000 being spent on a designer bike shed at the same time as the Government is imposing a recruitment embargo. Does the Minister not know how tone-deaf that is and what the family whose mother is lying on a hospital trolley in a corner of one of those hospitals feel when they hear that, or when the carer who is sitting at home cannot actually care for people because there is a recruitment embargo that does not allow the hours for home help to be provided? Does the Minister not understand that people are sick to the teeth of the Government, which is a serial waster of public money, spending money over and over again on vanity projects? That includes €336,000 on the Leinster House bike shed, €100,000 on the Holles Street hospital bike shed, and now the Minister defends €127,000 on a bike shed in the Kerry hospital. It was the most expensive option, at 20 times dearer. These are vanity projects and the Government has lost the run of itself on public spending and value for money.
The Government is tone deaf when it talks to people about how they will have to wait until next year's budget for supports and have to tighten their belts. Yet the Government signed the cheques for designer bike sheds and the Minister stands there and defends that at a time the Government is telling people it is imposing a recruitment embargo. Nurses are at breaking point.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07