Taxpayers to foot €56k bill to help politicians get fit

Taxpayers are to foot a €56,000 bill for a fitness instructor to help Oireachtas members get that perfect beach body.

As TDs leave Leinster House in their droves for their long summer holidays, the House of the Oireachtas has confirmed it has appointed an onsite fitness instructor to manage the funded gym at Government buildings.

Tender documents show the contract has gone to InSpire of Leopardstown Valley, Dublin 18, and the instructor will be paid €56,580 (including Vat) for the two-year contract.

The Leinster House gym boasts resistance-training machines, free weights and benches, rehabilitation machines, treadmills, crosstrainers, exercise bikes, and showers.

InSpire is to provide training for our elected leaders, workout or aerobic services, personnel services, and training services.

The gym is open to the Dáil’s 166 TDs and 60 senators, as well as staff who work at Leinster House.

The job description admits that the potential user population of the gym, between staff and elected representatives, is around 900 — but its average number of monthly users is estimated to be fewer than half that at 401.

Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley said the gym should not be funded by the State or from the House of the Oireachtas general budget and should instead be funded from membership fees by users of the gym.

The East Clare representative that said he does not use the gym himself.

“There is a breed of a greyhound in me and stress keeps me thin,” he said.

Mr Dooley last month completed the Clare 10k in a respectable 57 minutes “after the only time I ran in the previous one and a half years was to pursue a bag snatcher in Ennis”.

In response, a spokesman at the House of the Oireachtas said: “No change is envisaged in the current arrangements for the Oireachtas fitness room. Any proposals from a member to change the arrangements are best addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas Service.”

The spokesman said the contract, recently awarded following a full, open tender process, is valid to May 2017 with the possibility of two further extensions of up to 12 months each.