Stairway to nowhere: What the €500,000 steps really tell us about how Ireland makes decisions |
THERE’S SOMETHING ODDLY reassuring about the recent story of the €500,000 steps in Dublin. Not reassuring because half a million euro disappeared into a short flight of concrete, but because it fits so neatly into a familiar Irish pattern.
A modest piece of public infrastructure. A cost that seems wildly out of proportion. A collective intake of breath, followed by a shrug.
Remember the wall? The 70-metre perimeter wall at the Workplace Relations Commission in Ballsbridge. Originally estimated at €200,000 in 2022. Final bill in late 2024, €490,000. The same pattern, the same rhythm, the same predictable outcome.
Two projects, two modest pieces of infrastructure, two costs that somehow spiralled well beyond the bounds of reasonable. The facts have been well covered elsewhere. What matters is why stories like these keep happening with such a predictable rhythm, and why, once they do, they feel almost inevitable. Because these aren’t really stories about steps and walls.
Every expensive public project begins with a decision that feels too minor to challenge. A design choice. A materials specification. A “this is standard” assumption. A staircase. A perimeter wall. Hardly the sort of things that trigger serious debate or strategic pause. Nobody convenes a risk workshop over steps. Nobody demands value-for-money reviews for boundary walls.
And that is precisely the danger. Small decisions attract the least scrutiny. They sit below the threshold of concern, passing through systems almost unnoticed, carried along by habit, precedent and the comforting belief that someone, somewhere, is keeping an eye on the total. No one is reckless at this stage. Everyone is reasonable. And everyone........