Operator of Leinster House set to spend nearly €190k on fitness instructor to help keep TDs in shape

The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is seeking tenders for the fitness instructor contract at an estimated €188,640 over four years.

Once hired, the instructor will ­operate and manage the Houses of the ­Oireachtas Service fitness room.

The tender says the contract works out at €3,390 a month (ex-Vat) over the course of the initial two-year contract, with options to extend for two more one-year periods.

“Tenderers must understand that this figure is an estimate only, based on current and future expected usage,” it adds.

There are currently 160 members of Dáil Éireann, which will increase to 174 after the next general election, along with 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the document says.

According to the tender, the fitness room was opened to members and staff at Leinster House in 2005, “for the purpose of offering a healthy recreational outlet to counterbalance some of the negative lifestyle aspects of working long, irregular hours in the Parliament”.

The Fitness Room is located in the lower ground floor of Kildare House, Kildare Street and is fitted out with cardio-vascular equipment treadmills, cross-trainers, exercise bikes and rowers and resistance-training equipment.

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These include leg and abdominal machines, free weights and benches, and chest, back and multi-functional rehabilitation machines. The gym also has four plasma screens.

The exercise machines were installed recently after being purchased new in the middle of last month, it says.

According to the tender, the “potential user population” of the facility is about 1,000 individuals.

About 12 to 15 users can comfortably use the room at any one time and the average number of users every month is about 145.

The fitness room is open 18.5 hours a week during non-sitting sessions and for 27.5 hours a week during sitting weeks.

Peak periods are mornings and lunchtimes, when the fitness room would usually operate at maximum capacity, the tender says.

The appointed fitness instructor is to be responsible for all aspects of on-site management and the operation of the gym.

They are also to develop suitable personalised training programmes for ­users, including group classes if feasible.

The fitness instructor is to also assess the training needs of all users and conduct induction courses for new fitness room users.

Any applicant is to have a minimum of two years’ experience in providing fitness instructor services and a current valid fitness instruction qualification.

The tender says the Houses of the Oireachtas Service has the exclusive right to review and change the opening hours of the facility unilaterally.

Any reduction or increase in the opening hours decided by the service will result in a reduction or increase in the number of hours paid for, it adds.

The deadline for submission of tenders is October 25.