The refurbished property is still empty — as it is listed under offer for a ten-year lease on property site Colliers RICH TEA Dublin City Council in huge overspend for €683k park ‘tea room’ build after ‘unforeseen issues’ & building STILL empty A PUBLIC project to turn an old work depot into tearooms has cost almost 25 per cent more than was budgeted. Dublin City Council said the final bill for the conversion at Palmerston Park, located next to some of the most expensive houses in the city, was €683,000. 4 Palmerstown Park Cafe was refurbished Credit: Paul Sharp - Commissioned by The Sun Dublin 4 Palmerston Park is located in the South Dublin Suburb of Rathgar Credit: PR Handout 4 It cost €683,000 to complete Credit: PR Handout The original contract amount for the project in Dartry was €556,000 — but unforeseen extra costs arose after work began. And the refurbished property is still empty — as it is listed under offer for a ten-year lease on property site Colliers. Dublin City Council said two existing floor slabs had to be broken out, while the foundations for existing external walls were not strong enough and needed underpinning. The local authority said there were other problems with the walls and that work on additional kerbs, drainage and site clearance also took place. They said some savings were made by reducing the scale of a gravel area beside the new tearooms and a reduction in the number of parasols provided. An information note said: “Other design changes to items like lighting fittings, metalwork (tapping rails), security (protection cages) and external entrance mats have also been implemented. “Finally, significant additional soft landscaping works have been added to the works.” The council said that the conversion of the depot at the historic park included a dining area, a serving area, storerooms, toilets, and other facilities. MORE EXPENSIVE OPTION They said “unforeseen existing building structural issues” had added €30,000 to the bill and only became evident when work began. A note said: “These included the very unusual situation where the walls were built on top of the floor slab, which then had to be cut back, the walls underpinned and additional supports to the foundations.” It said the changes also meant the initial plan to insulate the building would not work and that a more expensive option was chosen instead. The council added: “The upside to this was that the building achieved an impressive A3 BER rating from B1 BER rating preconstruction … [what this] means is lower fuel costs and significantly less CO2 emissions.” They said landscape works had accounted for an extra €80,000 in costs with only a basic level provided for in the original pricing. 'JUSTIFIED' Their information note said: “The increase in cost included for a full planting scheme plus twelve months maintenance in and around the tearooms, drainage, Wicklow granite kerbing and associated works.” They added: “[This] was justified given the historic nature of the park and the need to use quality materials.” The council said miscellaneous extra costs accounted for €17,000 while there were delay claim accounts of around €6,000. Asked about the project, Dublin City Council said they had nothing further to add. New Public Accounts Committee chairman John Brady has vowed to hold the Government to account on how it spends taxpayers’ money. CULTURE OF WASTE The Sinn Fein TD said: “In the dying days of the last government, we had the drip-feed of shocking levels of waste — €336,000 on a bike shed, €500,000 on private jet flights for Simon Harris, €1.4million on a security hut, €9million on phone pouches, and the biggest one of all, the €1.5billion overspend on the Children’s Hospital. “Four months into 2025 and there is no end in sight, and no accountability - nearly half a million euro spent by the OPW on a perimeter wall, almost €7million wasted by the Arts Council on a failed IT project. "My Sinn Fein colleague Mark Ward has uncovered the HSE has thrown away €7million since 2022 for not paying their bills on time. “The culture of waste and unaccountability has to stop.”