Sale of the Central! Just €30 for a fridge
FORGET Black Friday – who wouldn’t happily pay €30 for a fridge freezer?
Staff at the Central Bank were treated to their very own eye-watering fire sale that saw hundreds of items – including TVs, fridges, hoovers, chairs, and a boardroom table – sold off at knockdown prices.
In one case, an employee bought enough to furnish a large office for an unbelievably low price. The buyer got 25 office chairs, two wooden desks, three pedestals, five notice boards, four reception chairs, a 12-foot table, two six-foot presses, a wooden cabinet, three steel units, ten mats, and a TV. All for just €330.
The fire sale of furniture and equipment from the Central Bank’s old headquarters in Temple Bar, all of which would have been paid for by the taxpayer, took place as the bank moved to its new offices on Dublin’s city quays. A small number of items were given to charity, but hundreds were flogged off to members of staff in return for nominal fees.
Six leather chairs, four office chairs, and three desks were sold for €95, while one employee bought 30 computer monitors for €60. And a boardroom table with eight chairs from the seventh floor was sold for just €80. Not all the items were even pre-used and two small cabinets – marked new in the records – were sold off for €54.
The €4,015 raised was donated to charity and several good causes were allowed take their pick. One charity did well, taking eight leather office chairs, 50 computer monitors, along with dozens of other items. The sale was separate from the high-profile public auction of other contents from the Temple Bar building that took place in Laois in May of this year.
The Central Bank said everything for its new building was bought as part of a public tender process designed to deliver ‘the most economically advantageous’ outcome. It said some staff bought items to give to good causes, and all staff confirmed none were re-sold. The sale saved the Bank paying a possible €60,000 bill for ‘extraction, transport, and disposal’.