‘I bring a lot of people up to visit Dáil Éireann, and the number one attraction is the bike shed,’ said Fianna Fáil TD Albert Dolan. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times

Up the grand staircase in Leinster House, the TD escorted his group of visitors. Straight ahead is the entrance to the Dáil chamber.

The surrounding walls are essentially a gallery featuring portraits of politicians who have served as taoiseach over the 100 years of the State’s existence.

Between the paintings of Jack Lynch and Seán Lemass, a number of people on the tour stand near the window which looks out towards Merrion Square.

Cameras or phones in hand, they zoom in, not on the portraits, but down to the €330,000 Leinster House bike shelter which caused ructions a year ago when the cost of the structure emerged.

Fianna Fáil TD Albert Dolan says he has been bringing supporters and community groups to Leinster House since his election earlier this year and finds that people always want to see the controversial bike shelter that they have heard and read about.

“The saddest thing is that I, like the rest of the TDs, bring a lot of people up to visit Dáil Éireann, and the number one attraction is the bike shed,” he told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last week.

“People want to see this famous bike shed and that is so sad because there is so much brilliance and history in this building.”

Senior politicians seemed instinctively to realise the Leinster House bike shelter, as an example of wastef