Taxpayer foots the bill for storing Gavin’s plants

THE taxpayer is covering the storage costs for hundreds of plants from Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial “floating garden”, which has arrived in Ireland from the Chelsea Flower Show.

The plants, including rare shrubs and grasses, are likely to be in storage in a Dublin garden centre for several weeks while the logistics of transporting the “hard elements” of the gold medal-winning garden to Cork are finalised.

The senior Cork City Council official handling the project said last night that while the plant storage costs are minimal, her top priority is to ensure that the storage time is limited, and that the taxpayer’s exposure to further costs is minimised.