A new entrance to a South Dublin park, which ended up costing €500,000 more than originally estimated is “a good project”, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has maintained.
NTA deputy chief executive Hugh Creegan told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday that it was “a pity that it cost as much as it did”.
He said it should have been possible to deliver the project at a lower cost.
The Irish Times reported in November that the works, which involved the building of 14 steps and a ramp at Deer Park in Mount Merrion, had cost a total of €753,500 including VAT.
Documents released recently by the NTA under the Freedom of Information Act showed the initial cost estimate provided by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was €200,000.
“This is a project that cost more than we would have expected it to,” Mr Creegan said on Thursday.
Hugh Creegan said the early-stage cost estimate of about €200,000 provided by the local authority was ‘rudimentary’. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
He told the PAC in hindsight there were things “that could have been done better”. He said with greater care at the design stage, some of the costs could have been taken out.
Questioned by Eoghan Kenny of Labour, Aidan Farrelly of the Social Democrats and James Geoghegan of Fine Gael, Mr Creegan confirmed the initial costings for the project put forward by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council was €200,000. However, this had increased to over €300,000 by the time construction contracts were signed and rose further afterwards.
The park at Mount Merrion is run by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which developed the project, but funding was provided by the NTA.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council told The Irish Times before Christmas that the works at Deer Park represented “a significant engineering project that encountered many challenges during the construction including the discovery of previously unidentified electrical cables”. It said these had to be relocated.
The NTA said earlier this week that in a summer 2024 report , the council “signalled there were delays due to challenges on site which would lead to additional costs”.
“Following NTA on-site assessment and meetings with the council, the NTA decided to provide additional funding to complete the project.”
Mr Creegan said describing the project as just involving the construction of 14 steps was a little simplistic. He said there was a gradient issue, and the route was inaccessible to people to people in wheelchairs and people with buggies.
“It required retaining walls, ramps, pedestrian crossing and a pile of other things. It should have been possible to do it cheaper but it is still a project that was a good project and is delivering good benefits.”
He said the early-stage cost estimate of about €200,000 provided by the local authority was “rudimentary”.
“As the project developed, we would have expected some of the things that materialised on site during construction to be found out about during the design phase and be dealt with.”
“I have some sympathy for uncharted underground services. They are not on any maps or you come across them and have to deal with them. But maybe they should have done some extra trial testing and found those in advance and things like that. There are things that could have been done better that would have reduced the cost.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Thursday: “You could not make this up. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are serial wasters of public money.”