Modular units plan proceeded despite OPW’s concerns on cost [Video]

Concerns about the financial “viability” of modular homes for Ukrainian refugees were raised with senior Government officials – but the State still instructed the under-fire Office of Public Works to proceed with the project, writes Brian Mahon.

Last month, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the State’s spending watchdog, revealed the cost per unit of over 600 modular homes had risen from an initial estimate of €200,000 to around €442,000, a 121% increase.

Officials from the OPW yesterday appeared in front of the Public Accounts Committee to defend the cost of the units.

In its opening statement, John Conlon, the new chair of the OPW, said the cost of the modular homes project was “the equivalent of providing rooms in hotels” for five years.

He said: “By any assessment it is better to have this new State asset than to be renting hotel rooms for five years. This State asset will be available for …