The Spire on Dublin's O'Connell Street, which has lost a lot of its sheen since it was erected in January 2003, won't be cleaned from top to bottom until next summer, Dublin City Council admitted yesterday.
Because the 120m needle is made from stainless steel, there was a belief at the outset that it would somehow be "self-cleaning". But dirt deposited by rain has left it streaked with brownish gunge.
All of the statues on O'Connell Street, including Charles Stewart Parnell and Daniel O'Connell "The Liberator" with his retinue of angels, have been cleaned in recent months. The Spire, however, is a real challenge due to its soaring height.
Michael O'Neill, the city council's engineer on the project, said the task of cleaning it would take four days and could only be done on a bank holiday weekend during the summer, at an estimated cost of between €40,000 and €50,000.
"It couldn't be done this summer because of the major work under way on the north end of the street," he told The Irish Times. "There's no space at present to bring in a crane, so we have to get the work finished first."
The paving work, which is part of the council's O'Connell Street rejuvenation plan, will not be finished until Christmas at the earliest, Mr O'Neill said. "After that, we'll have to think long and hard about cleaning the Spire."
Hiring a crane tall enough to tackle the job would be the most expensive element. A modern telescopic crane with a boom extension is more likely to be used than the huge folding crane that was employed to erect it.
"The crane would take a day to put up, another day to collapse and the rest of the time to clean it," Mr O'Neill said.
"This would be done by two men in a basket, soft-brushing it with a paste and then cleaning it off with water."
There is a maintenance contract for the lower part of the Spire, which has a mirror-polished finish, and this includes cleaning off any graffiti, stains or smudges on a daily basis. But the upper 100 metres have never been cleaned.
Given the costs involved, Mr O'Neill said it could not be done every month.
"We have to make a call about how often we clean it, so we're going to have to live with a period when it's grubby. The chances are it will be once every five years."