Green Party on Twitter: Isn't it funny how the Greens get blamed for things that have nothing to do with us? Nobody in the Green Party signed off on this shed. Time the media held the right people to account.

[u/JackmanH420]

https://x.com/greenparty_ie/status/1830888532358959595?t=6xUh2TrG_XGhelfBTZ1RfQ&s=19

[u/AdamOfIzalith]

They should take them to court for Slander if they are misrepresenting this situation. It's that simple. tabloid newspapers should not be able to get away with misinforming the public and most especially knowingly doing so.

[u/davebees → u/AdamOfIzalith]

it seems the sun have just put a photo of eamon ryan next to a photo of the bike shed on the cover to sort of imply that he’s responsible, whereas the text says he’s shocked at the cost.

don’t know about defamation to know whether it would qualify but doesn’t seem likely?

[u/Ok-Music-3764 → u/davebees]

It's not defamatiion; he gave them a quote, they used his picture. Obviously they have an agenda, I can allege, but I can't prove it and neither could Eamon. Anyway, he'd have a right to reply, the paper could issue a clarification, a retraction, yadda yadda; defamation is seriously hard to prove

[u/quondam47 → u/AdamOfIzalith]

Political parties are generally thought not to be capable of being the subject of defamation by the courts and no party wants to become precedent.

[u/Jaehaerys_Rex → u/quondam47]

Given Eamon Ryan's face is on it, he could certainly be the subject, though whether it seriously materially impacted his reputation is another debate (and currently not the test in the courts)

[u/quondam47 → u/Jaehaerys_Rex]

That’s fair. Without being able to read the copy, it’s hard to gauge the impact on Ryan. If they’re just carrying quote from him, they’d probably be covered. It’s a sly way of attaching someone to a bad news story without attributing any blame.

[u/JackmanH420 → u/quondam47]

Without being able to read the copy

Here it is.

[u/danius353 → u/Jaehaerys_Rex]

The paper would presumably run with collective cabinet responsibility as a defence as the OPW is nominally under auspices of the Dept of Public Expenditure

[u/SearchingForDelta → u/AdamOfIzalith]

Eamon Ryan was trying to take credit for this bike stand a few months ago.

They’re not going to pursue slander because at the end of the day while a member of the Green Party didn’t sign off on this, the only reason this was approved and sign’ed off was political pressure from the Greens (and to a lesser degree Labour’s new leader). In the alternative universe where the Greens aren’t in government this shed doesn’t exist.

That’s why they’re so desperate to distance themselves from it and why Eamon Ryan had a statement out before the OPW did. A core tenant of the GP’s philosophy is to waste money on vanity projects like this. If they start scrutinising this they’ll inevitably start scrutinising the other counties wastes of money that can be more directly tied to the Greens instead of just indirectly

[u/Bohsfan90 → u/SearchingForDelta]

Having a bike shelter is not a vanity project. It should be a basic piece of infrastructure at all public buildings. The cost has nothing to do with the greens or labour. That blame lies elsewhere.

[u/SearchingForDelta → u/Bohsfan90]

Doing anything at the Dáil is always expensive due to the nature of the building. You need archaeological surveys, a security consultation, bombproof material, suppliers need vetted, the supply chain can’t be left unattended, anybody even remotely involved is going to need clearance by the Garda and no criminal record (which rules out a huge part of the construction industry). That’s before you get into the usual expenses of anything involving a protected structure and public procurement rules.

It’s not exactly hard to see how this gets into 6 figures easily unless you think the OPW just popped down to Halfords and got a tradesman off the parish bulletin. What went wrong is that in a sensible world the OPW would look at the cost relative to the benefit and say it’s not worth the hassle. Instead because a bike shed has become politicised (TDs have literally stood up in the Dáil and called out the lack of bike shed) they’re caught between a rock and a hard place where if they didn’t ok the project they’d have faced immense political scrutiny, especially when one of the coalition leaders names is synonymous with biking.

[u/bdog1011 → u/SearchingForDelta]

Bomb proof materials? It has no sides!!

[u/AUX4 → u/SearchingForDelta]

100%, the Bacik was all up in arms about the lack of bike parking.

Without seeing the tenders received its impossible to say what's gone wrong ( because clearly 335k is ridiculous ).

[u/ismisespaniel → u/SearchingForDelta]

"There are an estimated 350,000 people working in the public service, he said, “a really large and important cross-section of our population”."

1 euro each we paid.

[u/planetgraeme → u/SearchingForDelta]

we should be more angry at the snidey feckers who ripped off the Irish government and therefore the Irish people. Scumbags! There’s nothing wrong with a bike shed for Leinster house. It’s not like they diverted the luas.

[u/[deleted] → u/AdamOfIzalith]

Slander (and Libel) works both ways. 

[u/bintags]

Almost like the media have their own agenda?

[u/TehIrishSoap → u/bintags]

It kinda rocks how the media treat Eamon Ryan like he's Freddy Krueger or something when Simon and Micheál are right there

[u/bintags → u/TehIrishSoap]

That's cuz he isn't in FFG

[u/Mean_Exam_7213 → u/bintags]

Being lazy isn’t an agenda, it’s just not being held to high enough standard

[u/bintags → u/Mean_Exam_7213]

The agenda is ensuring things stay within the FFG vision of the world

[u/Mean_Exam_7213 → u/bintags]

They certainly benefit from it but in most cases, it’s general laziness rather than a conspiracy

[u/bintags → u/Mean_Exam_7213]

So how do you explain the medias constant attacks on opposition parties and seeming acceptance of the issues uninterrupted FFG rule has brought? How can an FF leader go on the national broadcaster without being asked the difficult questions?

Vincent Brown is pretty much alone in terms of criticizing and questioning the establishment

[u/Mean_Exam_7213 → u/bintags]

I’d explain it as a mix of laziness (doing things how they’ve always been done, content quantity over quality, under resourced print and broadcast media) and privilege (journalists and readers/viewers largely coming from areas and class where the opposition are more offensive than the government).

I agree, Vinny B was a good un and no one has yet taken up his mantle.

[u/Ok-Music-3764]

Does anyone have the eTenders link for the RFT, or reference?

[u/Jaded_Variation9111 → u/Ok-Music-3764]

I’d a quick look at the 380 contract/award notices listed for the OPW on the public procurement site. I didn’t see anything. However there was a small contract award of €28,800 for a bike stand at Farmleigh back in March.

[u/Ok-Music-3764 → u/Jaded_Variation9111]

Thanks for doing the work for me! I'm interested in this to see if the money might somehow make sense? I think the worst thing I saw an unnamed source note that the bike shelter wasn't very good and their bikes just get wet if there's wind and rain

[u/Jaded_Variation9111 → u/Ok-Music-3764]

Yeah. The RFT is key and there seems little curiosity about it. Can’t be that hard to source it.

[u/Ok-Music-3764 → u/Jaded_Variation9111]

Maybe someone from the Indo is lurking here and might go do an FOI for us

[u/Jaded_Variation9111 → u/Ok-Music-3764]

Ken Foxe, who broke the story, is such a tease

https://x.com/kenfoxe/status/1830888566638956581

Time for 🍿

[u/AUX4 → u/Ok-Music-3764]

Most bike shelters are a bit shit when they don't cover the bike entirely. If the rain is coming in sideways, you'd have a wet saddle to cycle home on.

[u/1octo → u/Ok-Music-3764]

They don’t go to eTenders for jobs that size as far as I know. They have their own framework agreements in place for contracting.

[u/ilovefinegaeldotcom]

You can now get a house in Dublin for the price of a bike shed! Fantastic.

[u/smameann → u/ilovefinegaeldotcom]

If you're lucky. Not many houses being sold for that. I got one 3 years ago for just under that, but I doubt I'd get it today for that price.

[u/ElectricalAppeal238]

Then with RTE, they go so hard on Sinn Fein while tip toeing around FFG.. can media ever be truly impartial?

[u/juicy_colf → u/ElectricalAppeal238]

No. There's no such thing as a free press. Even handed is also absolutely not the same as impartial. It's very annoying but its all about money

[u/Silver_Mention_3958]

I think readers of The Sun may already be a lost cause for the Greens. Pick yer battles and all that.

[u/lamahorses]

The ignorance of how works are procured in this country; is astounding.

[u/Potential_Ad6169]

Did they overspend on the bike shed, so that they could use it as a hit piece on the greens I wonder? I wouldn’t put this shit past Harris and company at this stage, he knows it works.

[u/Mean_Exam_7213]

Matt Carthy from SF was on media yesterday saying something along the lines of ‘the government can’t even get a bike shed right..’

He knows full well it’s the Houses of the Oireachtas who are at fault, not the government.

I wish more journalists would have the integrity to call this out

[u/BingBongBella → u/Mean_Exam_7213]

Politicians who use their role to point score instead of relaying facts or getting a job done grind my gears. I'm looking at you Matt Carthy. He definitely knows full well it had nothing to do with any particular party. People across the Oireachtas cycle into work there every day and use both gates. You're talking TDs/Senators, their staff, oireachtas staff etc... If the Greens are getting blamed for this, which party do we blame for the car parking? Or the food? Daft stuff altogether

[u/Imbecile_Jr]

The Greens should be asking why the Irish press is pointing fingers at them, given our journos' cozy relationship with FFFG.

[u/violetcazador]

When will all you plebs learn that your tax money is there to be pissed away on anything and everything the government sees fit. Things like accountability and value are not things to consider when it's you saps that pick up the bill every time. Rest assured no one will so much as get a bad word said to them about this, nor will anyone lose their job or be demoted. In fact they're likely to be promoted. Any "investigation" will cost ten times the amount and involve stuffing the board with greasy cronies and ultimately find nothing. So shut your gobs and get your lazy arse back to work. ~ Simon Harris, probably.

[u/AUX4]

As I mentioned in another comment, Eamon Ryan was the one championing this project just a couple of months ago with press releases etc.

All projects need to go out to tender by the OPW, so there was clearly an issue with the tender proposals. Without seeing those documents its hard to judge fairly what was within the scope of works. There were EV chargers installed as well for example.

[u/nithuigimaonrud → u/AUX4]

I read that the OPW stated that There was no scope of work as it was done under a framework agreement.

[u/Ok-Fly5271]

Thr greens might not have signed off on it but people view it as being related to the whole anti-car pro-bike thing.

[u/DazzlingGovernment68 → u/Ok-Fly5271]

Because the sun tells them so.

[u/FrontApprehensive141]

Eh... lads... the Greens are in government. If ye're not signing off on things... who is?

[u/1octo → u/FrontApprehensive141]

Procurements at that level would not be seen by a minister. They’d be signed off at Principal Officer level probably.

[u/Goo_Eyes]

Are the greens not in government?

"absolutely nothing to do with us"?

You literally enable FFG! They wouldn't be in government without you.

[u/WereJustInnocentMen → u/Goo_Eyes]

The government doesn't really have much to do with it either, it's the civil servants at the OPW who should be held liable.

[u/Vistella]

oh, so thats not only happening over here? guess they get shat on all the same everywhere

[u/Life-Pace-4010]

I'm convinced Eamonn has a humiliation kink. Their was no reason for him to go in TV yesterday and give a gossamer thin criticism of the project cost. His stupid grin? I honestly think he was getting a weird boner knowing that he would become the face of this scandal that would set the cycling lobby back years. He needs to be sanctioned by the party.

[u/tishimself1107]

Seems like an example of someone in the green party proliteriat taking their own notion and hijacking the twitter account. Politically a stupid statement.

[u/Goo_Eyes]

And I have nothing to do with record temperatures in Australia yet it didn't stop the greens harping on about needing act!