14 October-November 2024
S
ensori Facilities Management Ltd.
which built the most expensive
‘bicycle shed’ in the world in
Leinster House obtained a €40
million contract from the OPW in
November 2021 just a month before
businessman, Michael Stone, sold his 50%
shareholding to builders, Sisk Ltd.
Sensori was formed in 2018 as a joint
venture between the Designer Group
engineering firm owned by Stone and Sisk
before the large building firm purchased his
half of the company for €17 million in
December 2021.
Stone resigned from two State roles in
January last year after he apologised to then
Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP and
Reform, Paschal Donohoe for failing to inform
the politician that he paid for transport and
labour for the latter’s postering during the
2016 general election. He also confirmed that
he had wrongly told Donohoe in December
2022 and January 2023 that he had not
provided any assistance to the Minister’s
campaign for re-election in 2020 when in fact
he had done so.
Donohoe misled the Dáil when he told
members that he had received no assistance
from Stone during the 2020 election
campaign and was forced to correct the
record.
Stone’s company obtained a €40 million
tender from the OPW, which is a unit of the
Department of Expenditure, NDP and Reform,
in 2021.
EU tendering documents show that Sensori
was the only company to tender for this
lucrative contract when it was first advertised
in July 2021.
A month after it was awarded the tender, in
December 2021, Sisk bought out Stone’s 50%
shareholding for an impressive €17 million.
Sensori is the most prominent contractor
on the Leinster House and other OPW-run
sites and it may now be asked to explain what
other work it has completed under the €40
million contract and for a breakdown of the
associated costs.
In April 2023, it emerged that the Designer
Group had obtained contracts worth almost
€68 million in 2022. This included €64 million
for work on the State Laboratory and Forensic
Science campus in County Kildare. Thirteen
other firms tendered unsuccessfully for the
contract. It was also given a contract of €1.3
million, without any tendering process, for
urgent Brexit-related work at Rosslare
Harbour for the Revenue Commissioners and
secured contracts valued at more than
€100,000 for work at the Departments of
Health (€98,535), Finance (€9,620) and
Housing (€8,727) during 2022.
These figures were disclosed through
parliamentary questions by Independent TD,
Mattie McGrath, concerning State contracts
obtained by the Designer Group since 2017.
However, the replies did not disclose the €40
million contract secured by sole tender,
Sensori, from the OPW in 2021.
The €365k ‘bike shed’ controversy was
quickly overshadowed by the €1.4 million
security pavilion embarrassment at Leinster
House and continuing concern at the more
than €1 billion cost over-run for the National
Children’s Hospital.
Indeed, at the time of the Stone-Donohoe
controversy, Sinn Féin was assailed by some
media for raising questions about the trivial
sum involved in the postering affair. Over
recent weeks, it seems that the ghosts of
Ghosts from he dodgy ps
mus no rule our fuures
In addition to the bike shed, the company of Donohoe’s supporter,
Michael Stone, obtained a €40 million tender from the OPW, which
is a unit of Donohoe’s department, in 2021
By Frnk Connolly
tribunals and other financial scandals of the
past have returned to haunt Fine Gael and
Fianna Fáil in the dying days of their first,
formal coalition government.
At the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Athlone in late
September, Mary Lou McDonald cited
government waste of many billions of public
monies as one of her many reasons why the
two big political forces should be ousted after
100 years of sharing power. Billions have
gone into the pockets of private landlords and
global funds for looking after asylum seekers
because of government failure to organise
suitable, State-provided accommodation, she
said.
A succession of speakers reminded the live
television audience on Saturday, 28
September, of how the underfunding of
hospitals has left people, including the late
Aoife Johnston, dying on trolleys. And of how
children are waiting for school places, third-
level students are unable to pay their fees or
rent and most working people are still caught
in a cost-of- living crisis in the second most
expensive country in the EU, after
Luxembourg. Not to mention the housing
mess.
A poor local election performance following
mis-steps on migration and the care
referendums, as well as her own personal
health and family difficulties, were also
mentioned by the Sinn Féin leader as
challenges she and her party have faced over
the past year. Becoming the largest party in
the North and the installation of Michelle
O’Neill as first minister in recent months were
cited as success stories along the road to a
referendum on unity by 2030. They are also a
significant threat to the establishment across
the island.
With an election now in sight, Sinn Féin
along with other progressive parties and
independents must continue to show how
their policies can restore integrity to politics
while improving the quality of life for all
citizens and not just a chosen few of the
already privileged and enriched.
Another ten, or 100 years, of Fine Gael and
Fianna Fáil will not bring change.
NEWS
VillageOctNov24.indb 14 03/10/2024 14:27