TD Ken O'Flynn says he didn't know La-Z-Boy was a brand and just wanted what ‘everyone else has'
INDEPENDENT IRELAND TD Ken O'Flynn has said he was unaware that La-Z-Boy was a 'brand' and that he just requested what 'everyone else is provided with'.
In an email in mid-February to the Leinster House facilities management,
O'Flynn looked for ten separate items for his parliamentary office to 'enhance the workspace's comfort and functionality.'
That included a La-Z-Boy recliner as 'comfortable seating' for use during break periods and office meetings – such seats often retail at well over €1,000.
However, in an interview on the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's RedFM, O'Flynn said he didn't know where the €1,000 price tag came from.
When it was noted by host Prendeville that La-Z-Boy chairs are routinely priced in excess of €1,000, O'Flynn said he was unaware that La-Z-Boy was a brand and that he thought the term referred to a style of chair.
O'Flynn said he 'didn't realise they were a brand and I just thought it was the name of the chair'.
He added that he uses the term 'La-Z-Boy' for a style of chair that 'goes back slightly' and that there is 'no footrest' on the chair.
Meanwhile, O'Flynn had been at loggerheads with Oireachtas management over delays in getting his office fitted out since he was elected.
He told RedFM that he 'was assigned an office in the engineering block, which is outside Leinster House'.
'When I went into an office, there was a table but no chairs, no shelves, there were empty paint cans in the middle of the floor, a big stain on the carpet, and not even a chair for me to sit down at the computer'.
He added that he and his staff were 'waiting six weeks for a laptop to be provided'.
'I wrote to the facilities manager and said, 'please, can I have some furniture? Could you take out the rubbish that was left from the previous occupant and could you provide furniture?''
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O'Flynn said it took six months for him to be assigned an office inside Leinster House and that he was working out of Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins's office 'on part of his desk'.
The Independent Ireland TD had had frosty relations with the Oireachtas since his appointment and in January accused them of a 'disregard for the dignity' of his office in a row over lengthy delays in the fit-out of his office.
He told RedFM that he 'looked around at what every Senator and TD has' and that the offices contained what O'Flynn described as a 'La-Z-Boy'.
'I requested the exact same furniture that's inside every other TD's office.
'It's a bit misleading to say that I requested a €1,000 chair, I requested a chair to come out of the stockroom where they have chairs but they're out of them.'
In response to his request in mid-February, the Oireachtas said they had no recliners in stock and that they were not 'commonly purchased'.
When asked if his request 'flies in the face' of previous criticisms of government spending, O'Flynn said he just 'asked them to take a chair out of the stockroom that they have, that everyone else is provided with'.
'I haven't asked for designer wallpaper or floor-to-ceiling mirrors,' said O'Flynn in
reference to requests that had been made by other TDs.
'I am just asking to have a proper office after six months of not having an office,' said O'Flynn, 'and an exhausting amount of emails back and forth about where the office is going to be.
'I don't think I asked for anything extraordinary or marvelous, I think it has been blown out of proportion by certain members of the media.
'They're a normal chair, it's just that the back of it goes back.'
O'Flynn said he ended up being provided with an 'old-school chair'.
-With additional reporting from Ken Foxe
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