Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Squandered money count

Options
  • 05-12-2012 12:34pm
    #1
    donegal_road
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,281 ✭✭✭


    yesterday, I started to think of the many different government projects where huge amounts public money was squandered, and because today is budget day, I thought it might be interesting to put heads together and see how big a figure can be reached, of money that was wasted, or disappeared without trace in government projects since approx 1999.

    I'll kick it off with these two:

    the E -voting machines: €54 million

    Mater children's hospital planning: €26 million


    Total so far: €80 million


«13

Comments

  • Options
    #2
    smash
    Closed Accounts Posts: 34,809 ✭✭✭✭smash


    County Donegal as a whole.... billions :pac:


  • Options
    #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    When I was drunk the other night I spent 20 quid on pizza and threw it straight up once I'd eaten it. Total waste.


  • Options
    #4
    Where To
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭Where To


    Money spent by the general public in the last twenty years on booze, tobacco, tanning salons and designer clothes;

    Untold billions.


  • Options
    #5
    cml387
    Registered Users Posts: 8,363 ✭✭✭cml387


    Flogging the Irish Languange revival dead horse: 1.75 Squillion


  • Options
    #6
    Where To
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭Where To


    smash wrote: »
    County Donegal as a whole.... billions :pac:
    I would report your post but unfortunately it's true :(


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users Posts: 43,024 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    State funeral for Charles J Haughey


  • Options
    #8
    DazMarz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,493 ✭✭✭DazMarz


    Government Jet...


  • Options
    #9
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users Posts: 43,024 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    Mary Harneys haircuts


  • Options
    #10
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Shane Ross and Nick Webb had a book out called 'Wasters' a couple of years back detailing all the white elephant projects that money was flushed down the tube on.


  • Options
    #11
    squod
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,704 ✭✭✭squod


    Re-surfacing roads and digging them back up again a month later. My absolute favourite.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    About half of the 750 odd Quangos that this country has.....

    ....each with a CEO on fat salaries/pensions etc


  • Options
    #13
    Bobeagleburger
    Registered Users Posts: 45,262 ✭✭✭✭Bobeagleburger


    Bertie's makeup


  • Options
    #14
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users Posts: 43,024 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    TheTorment wrote: »
    About half of the 750 odd Quangos that this country has.....

    ....each with a CEO on fat salaries/pensions etc

    Parasites leeching off the State


  • Options
    #15
    Fromthetrees
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭Fromthetrees


    The plan to build a big shiny new prison, it's cost 10's of millions so far and all they have to show for it is a fucking field, the fucking incompetent fucktards.


  • Options
    #16
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    TheTorment wrote: »
    About half of the 750 odd Quangos that this country has.....

    ....each with a CEO on fat salaries/pensions etc


    While im on about Ross book i can remember vaguely he was on about some quango set up for a 'boat restoration project' (Cant remember which though).

    The boat sank yet the company staff were still drawing salaries up to 18 months later.


  • Options
    #17
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Did even the whole conception of the Bertie Bowl cost much does anyone know?


  • Options
    #18
    donegal_road
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,281 ✭✭✭donegal_road


    Deleted User wrote: »
    While im on about Ross book i can remember vaguely he was on about some quango set up for a 'boat restoration project' (Cant remember which though).

    The boat sank yet the company staff were still drawing salaries up to 18 months later.

    reminds me of the Jeanie Johnston famine ship project. Original cost estimated to be €5.8m, ran over budget to almost €14m.
    In the end it would have cost a fraction of this to fly all the pieces over to New York and build the thing there instead.


  • Options
    #19
    donegal_road
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,281 ✭✭✭donegal_road


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Did even the whole conception of the Bertie Bowl cost much does anyone know?

    €43 million


  • Options
    #20
    sheikhnguyen
    Registered Users Posts: 100 ✭✭sheikhnguyen


    The army buying Anti Tank Missiles. We have spent tens of millions of the MILAN and on the FGM-148 Javelin (the Javelin has cost at least $12.5 million dollars). In my opinion the Irish Army should be disbanded but I know it is kept around for 2 reasons, 1 is to guarantee the civil power and 2 is to make sure we pay a lesser rate of interest on the bond markets (an army is one of the criteria the rating agencies use to quantify their ratings). That said we have no need for anti tank missiles, none at all. If we are fighting a war with a country that is capable of transporting tanks to Ireland we have already lost the war. They are a massive waste of money.


  • Options
    #21
    Samba
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,476 ✭✭✭Samba


    The spire of Dublin, aka the monument of sh1te. Take it down and sell it for scrap metal!

    I was almost going to have a good moan about how the health system was neglected all those years, yet they probably would have squandered the funds anyway. :rolleyes:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    Bobeagleburger
    Registered Users Posts: 45,262 ✭✭✭✭Bobeagleburger


    Millenium clock

    What a pile of shíte that was


  • Options
    #23
    Frank Black
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,296 ✭✭✭Frank Black


    Anglo


  • Options
    #24
    srsly78
    Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    sheikhnguyen wrote: »
    The army buying Anti Tank Missiles. We have spent tens of millions of the MILAN and on the FGM-148 Javelin (the Javelin has cost at least $12.5 million dollars). In my opinion the Irish Army should be disbanded but I know it is kept around for 2 reasons, 1 is to guarantee the civil power and 2 is to make sure we pay a lesser rate of interest on the bond markets (an army is one of the criteria the rating agencies use to quantify their ratings). That said we have no need for anti tank missiles, none at all. If we are fighting a war with a country that is capable of transporting tanks to Ireland we have already lost the war. They are a massive waste of money.

    Have you ever considered that maybe they were for use by Irish troops whilst peace-keeping abroad? Or should our lads just surrender once armour shows up?

    I would imagine that anti-tank weaponry is a basic requirement for a modern military.


  • Options
    #25
    michael.dublin
    Registered Users Posts: 205 ✭✭michael.dublin


    this is from www.irishtimes.com

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0305/1224312795497.html


    €650 million spent on unrealised projects


    €30m


    Children’s hospital

    Some €30 million has been spent by the hospital board – mainly in fees to architects, engineers and other consultants or experts – in progressing its plans. The Government says a revised plan will be produced in the coming months.

    €42m


    Dart Underground

    Plans and land acquisition for the Dart Underground have cost millions, but the project has been delayed indefinitely under the new capital spending plans.

    €50m


    Media Lab Europe

    The high-technology “seed bed”, based in Dublin’s Liberties, was run jointly by the government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was one of Mr Ahern’s most favoured projects. Founded in 2000, it went into liquidation a few years later, with consultants describing its output as “dismal”, “surprisingly weak” and “mediocre”.

    €130m

    PPARS

    The HSE’s information technology project started small, at an estimated cost of €9 million in 1997, and ballooned to a cost of €130 million in 2004, before being put on hold by the Health Service Executive in 2007.

    €55m


    E-voting

    Martin Cullen ordered more than 700 of the machines at a cost of €51 million, only to have them placed in storage in 2004 when security concerns emerged. Attempts to sell them have so far been unsuccessful.

    €1.5m


    Hospital co-location

    Almost €1.5 million was paid in legal and financial costs associated with the now abandoned plans to develop co-located private hospitals. Project agreements for each of these hospitals expired in March 2011.

    €44m


    Decentralisation

    Millions have been spent on acquiring sites for the Government’s decentralisation programme in locations where plans to transfer public service offices and State agencies have been either postponed or axed.

    €18m
    Metro West

    Millions has been spent on the design of this section of the Metro. It, too, has been shelved indefinitely as a result of cutbacks to capital spending plans.

    €150m

    Metro North

    The decision not to proceed with the Metro North rail project as part of the 2012-2016 capital investment programme will cost the State more than €150 millionincluding compensation to the project bidders.

    €100m


    Bertie Bowl

    Millions were spent on consultancy fees and the clearances of the Abbotstown development in preparation for a national stadium. Political opposition from Fianna Fáil’s coalition partners, the PDs, ultimately scuppered the project, although the FAI went on to relocate its headquarters at the site.

    €42m

    Thornton Hall

    The Government spent €30 million acquiring land for the Thornton Hall “superprison”, which has been delayed indefinitely. A further €12 million has been spent on original plans for the prison and the Central Mental Hospital. Both designs have since been scrapped. Plans for a scaled-down version of the prison have also been long-fingered.


  • Options
    #26
    fasttalkerchat
    Registered Users Posts: 5,652 ✭✭✭fasttalkerchat


    srsly78 wrote: »
    Have you ever considered that maybe they were for use by Irish troops whilst peace-keeping abroad? Or should our lads just surrender once armour shows up?

    I would imagine that anti-tank weaponry is a basic requirement for a modern military.

    Would the Irish Army ever come up against a tank?


  • Options
    #27
    donegal_road
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,281 ✭✭✭donegal_road


    michael.dublin wrote: »
    this is from www.irishtimes.com

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0305/1224312795497.html


    €650 million spent on unrealised projects


    €30m


    Children’s hospital

    Some €30 million has been spent by the hospital board – mainly in fees to architects, engineers and other consultants or experts – in progressing its plans. The Government says a revised plan will be produced in the coming months.

    €42m


    Dart Underground

    Plans and land acquisition for the Dart Underground have cost millions, but the project has been delayed indefinitely under the new capital spending plans.

    €50m


    Media Lab Europe

    The high-technology “seed bed”, based in Dublin’s Liberties, was run jointly by the government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was one of Mr Ahern’s most favoured projects. Founded in 2000, it went into liquidation a few years later, with consultants describing its output as “dismal”, “surprisingly weak” and “mediocre”.

    €130m

    PPARS

    The HSE’s information technology project started small, at an estimated cost of €9 million in 1997, and ballooned to a cost of €130 million in 2004, before being put on hold by the Health Service Executive in 2007.

    €55m


    E-voting

    Martin Cullen ordered more than 700 of the machines at a cost of €51 million, only to have them placed in storage in 2004 when security concerns emerged. Attempts to sell them have so far been unsuccessful.

    €1.5m


    Hospital co-location

    Almost €1.5 million was paid in legal and financial costs associated with the now abandoned plans to develop co-located private hospitals. Project agreements for each of these hospitals expired in March 2011.

    €44m


    Decentralisation

    Millions have been spent on acquiring sites for the Government’s decentralisation programme in locations where plans to transfer public service offices and State agencies have been either postponed or axed.

    €18m
    Metro West

    Millions has been spent on the design of this section of the Metro. It, too, has been shelved indefinitely as a result of cutbacks to capital spending plans.

    €150m

    Metro North

    The decision not to proceed with the Metro North rail project as part of the 2012-2016 capital investment programme will cost the State more than €150 millionincluding compensation to the project bidders.

    €100m


    Bertie Bowl

    Millions were spent on consultancy fees and the clearances of the Abbotstown development in preparation for a national stadium. Political opposition from Fianna Fáil’s coalition partners, the PDs, ultimately scuppered the project, although the FAI went on to relocate its headquarters at the site.

    €42m

    Thornton Hall

    The Government spent €30 million acquiring land for the Thornton Hall “superprison”, which has been delayed indefinitely. A further €12 million has been spent on original plans for the prison and the Central Mental Hospital. Both designs have since been scrapped. Plans for a scaled-down version of the prison have also been long-fingered.

    Thanks for the article, makes for sobering reading


  • Options
    #28
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Samba wrote: »
    The spire of Dublin, aka the monument of sh1te. Take it down and sell it for scrap metal!

    I was almost going to have a good moan about how the health system was neglected all those years, yet they probably would have squandered the funds anyway. :rolleyes:

    The spire was totally unneccessary. Nelson's pillar is gone since the mid 1960's so it was hardly a pressing issue to replace it but of course it now stands as a monument to the great length to which the egos running this nation could stretch.


  • Options
    #29
    fasttalkerchat
    Registered Users Posts: 5,652 ✭✭✭fasttalkerchat


    Was metro north dropped?? Why?


  • Options
    #30
    fasttalkerchat
    Registered Users Posts: 5,652 ✭✭✭fasttalkerchat


    Deleted User wrote: »
    The spire was totally unneccessary. Nelson's pillar is gone since the mid 1960's so it was hardly a pressing issue to replace it but of course it now stands as a monument to the great length to which the egos running this nation could stretch.

    I wonder could we get the new IRA to bomb it??


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #31
    Rented Mule
    Registered Users Posts: 5,153 ✭✭✭Rented Mule


    I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Port Tunnel.

    From Wiki:

    The tender price for construction of the tunnel was €457 million. The final project cost was brought to €752 million by land acquisition, design, insurance, legal and other services, plus supervision by Brown & Root.

    Construction commenced in June 2001 and the tunnel was originally due to open in 2005 after an elapsed time of 43 months. It eventually opened in December 2006, giving an elapsed time of 66 months.


Advertisement