The 120-yr-old Fireman’s Rest, which consists of a tiny cottage that was once manned around-the-clock by a firefighter with a ladder and hose nearby, has been restored, and Cork City Council has justified spending €326,550 on it, reports Breaking News.
In order to determine the precise cost of the repaired building that has been on St Patrick’s Street for a century, The Opinion Line with PJ Coogan on Cork’s 96FM filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Some city leaders criticised this on-air, saying the expenses were too high.
Peter Horgan, a Labour councillor from Cork, described the amount of money spent on the restoration process as “absolutely mad,” reports Breaking News.
“The fact that that is the price for the Fireman’s Rest is really absurd. I haven’t been provided those numbers as an elected official. I am going to bring this up with the executive. “What is the justification for the costings?” I’ll ask.
“I submitted a FOI on it two years ago, and at the time, it was valued between €150,000 and €200,000. It is something that is not even really usable,” reports Breaking News.
Spending so much money on a building that is “the size of a garden shed” is shameful, according to Cork Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn.
“When I think what it could achieve for the people of Cork city. I am talking about people who are waiting for stair lifts, who are waiting for conversions, additional bathrooms, walk in showers, elderly people, people who are waiting on the housing list. This is exactly the same rubbish we saw in Leinster House with the bicycle shed costing €336,000,” reports Breaking News.
The rebuilt building is currently visible outside Cork’s Anglesea Street fire station. From 1904 until 2002, when it was taken down as part of the renovation of the city centre public area, it was bookmarked St. Patrick Street. For twenty years, it was kept at a depot.
“This is the size of the average garden shed. That is appalling. We haven’t been furnished with a full breakdown of costs. I do understand that there was something else attached to it in a sense of they were making a documentary. I am not sure that Sky or Netflix are going to buy the documentary rights of a shed being re-erected. That is not good value for money,” reports Breaking News.
The building was first put together for the Cork Fire Brigade, but later on, CIE and employees of a tram firm also utilised it.
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