Security at sites for refugees' modular homes cost almost €1m
Modular homes under constructon at St Michael's Drive, Mahon, Cork City, in 2023. The OPW revealed that one of the extra costs associated with the site was due to having to remove Japanese knotweed. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Almost €1m was spent on enhanced security at six sites where modular houses for Ukrainian refugees were to be built, new documents show.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has outlined there was a total cost of €942,305 to provide security services to sites for modular homes.
The costs are associated with the construction of 246 modular homes across the country, including the 64 units at a site in Mahon in Cork City.
In documents provided to the Oireachtas public accounts committee, the OPW says there was a need for “additional security requirements over and above the usual allowance” due to what it described as “socio-political sensitivity”.
The enhanced security included a requirement for security personnel to be on hand 24 hours a day, until it was 50% occupied.
Other significant costs were incurred by the OPW while developing the six sites, through what were described as “site abnormals”.
In total, there was a bill of €7,654,236 across all six sites.
This included the removal of Japanese knotweed at the Mahon site, with “significant amounts” of the invasive plant found on multiple locations in the area.
The OPW said this caused delays to the project and necessitated the employment of a specialist ecologist to “survey the site, put together a treatment plan and monitor all works associated with the removal of the knotweed”.
This included boundary works to prevent further spread of the weed. The overall cost at Mahon for abnormal site issues was €1,263,850.
The most expensive place for site abnormals was in Rathdowney — €2,440,000 — where builders discovered early in the process the ground conditions were “not optimal for delivering a housing development” due to its soil type and close-to-surface groundwater.
