The revelations about the cost of the President’s residence at UL has certainly been generating column inches. Though I’m not sure that they are revelations as such as the place was on the plans for UL for years and it’s not like it was going to cost a fiver. Even so, it does seem a overly costly effort to me and I would have to wonder if the expense is warranted. And personally, I’m not crazy about the design of the structure either but that’s just me.
That said the announcement of an investigation by Batt O’Keeffe into the cost of the building does throw up an entirely different question of whether there is a double standard at work here. If this building on the UL campus has been paid for out of private sector funds and has cost the taxpayer nada, nothing, faic but the existing residence’s of university presidents is currently costing us money then why not investigate them too? We’re investigating something that may not have cost the taxpayer anything but we’re ignoring something that does cost the taxpayer. That’s politics for ya!