€420k bill and still no OPW book

A HISTORIAN contracted to write the history of the Office of Public Works (OPW) has been given an extra €80,000 even though he has completed just two chapters and the book may never be published.

This is on top of the €340,000 Desmond McCabe has already been paid since 2000, bringing to €420,000 the total fees he will have been paid for the project.

Chair of the OPW, Claire McGrath, said a “catalogue” of the organisation’s history will be put up online instead of a book because of the huge volume of information on the OPW’s history.