Five big wastes of public money

By Conor Hogan

In the wake of the revelations about Senator Ivor Callely claiming €81,015 since 2007 for overnight and travel expenses to a house in Cork, JOE takes a look at some of the biggest wastes of public money in history, both in Ireland and abroad.

1. 2004 Irish Electronic Voting Fiasco

There is a famous urban myth about NASA, that they invested hundreds of billions of dollars developing a pen that could write in outer space, while the crafty Russians just took a pencil with them. This is of course nonsense.

‘Stupid old pencils’, as Bertie Ahern called them, were good enough for both these space programmes. Celtic Tiger era Irish voters were another matter however. We were far more advanced than that.

Inspired by the successful use of Electronic voting in the 2000 US presidential election (which George W. Bush won with absolutely no controversy whatsoever), Minister for the Environment and Local Government Martin Cullen decided to introduce the most sophisticated Electronic Voting system ever devised for both local and European Parliament elections.

The government spent €52 million on these machines only for them to be rejected by an Independent Commission over fears that they could be easily hacked.

Having spent so much money they decided that it would cause a loss of national pride to get rid of them, so they decided to spend €800,000 a year to keep the machines in storage, in the hope that they could eventually be modified. John Gormley announced in 2009 that they would be finally decommissioned.

2. FÁS Science Challenge Programme 2003-2007

FÁS wasted a lot of money in its time, but the €7.8m they spent between 2003 and 2007 to send Irish graduates to train at US institutions for six months was possibly the most galling.

For this, €600,000 was spent on flights, and another €1.1m on accommodation. It cost on average nearly €28,000 for each of the 243 students sent. And there wasn’t any tangible benefit to the programme whatsoever.

In fact, a report into the programme said, ‘[There were] no measurable or quantifiable targets or goals set, It is therefore difficult to establish any benefits arising directly from the Science Challenge programme.’ They might as well have just burned the money.

3. The US Department of the Army 1981

Worcestershire Sauce is very handy. It can be used as a steak sauce, or added to bacon and eggs. It can be put on hamburgers, or many types of fish, and is an essential addition to any good Welsh Rarebit.

It is very easy to find, it should be on a shelf next to the tomato ketchup, mustard and other condiments in any good Supermarket or corner shop. To buy it, all you need to do is pick it up and hand it to the person at the checkout. They will ask you for money, it should cost less than €3, which you will hand them.

For more information, you might try and get your hands on a 17 page manual entitled, ‘How to buy Worcestershire Sauce?’, that the US army commissioned in 1981 at the cost of $6000, or the equivalent of 2000 bottles of it.

4. UK Arts and Humanities Research Council 2008

Pink, apparently, is a soothing colour that can be used to calm conditions of anger and feelings of neglect. It supposedly can be used to awaken passion, love, and can be used in meditation to discern greater truths.

This is what Professors Charles Spence of Oxford University and Hilary Dalke of Kingston University believed. They asked for £125,000 off the Arts and Humanities Research Council to paint violent young offender's bedrooms that colour. And they actually gave it to them.

They also made the young men’s rooms smell lemony fresh.

5. Mary Harney

In 2004, Harney’s use of the government jet to go to Florida cost the tax payer over €80,000. Her husband, Brian Geoghegan, was given over €100 a day in ‘subsistence money’ while there.

While she was in Florida she booked herself in for a hairdressing appointment at a cost of over €400. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t looked like she’d cut it herself, in the dark, with a lawnmower, while drunk.

She insisted that the trip Florida wasn’t a holiday, even though she did use her time there to visit a relative. Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore called for her resignation, claiming ‘there is a cosy circle involving FÁS and senior ministers who provide its funding'.