2020 projects should create jobs for unemployed locals

A social clause ensuring unemployed Galway builders are hired to work on big publicly-funded construction projects in the city is being advanced.

Social clauses in Galway City Council procurement contracts would provide for the hiring of local unemployed workers and apprentices on large-scale construction projects.

Galway City Councillor Mark Lohan, who has pushed this agenda for years even before he was co-opted, said construction projects associated with the Capital of Culture bid in 2020, could use these clauses.

He said the 2017-2019 capital investment programme of the Council contains tens of millions of euro worth of spending on large builds within Galway, and now was the time to use the social clauses.

“The Capital of Culture projects and others can provide the initial use of such clauses which ensure that unemployed Galway construction workers will be placed on these publicly funded jobs. There is no reason that social clauses cannot be put into effect in the very near future and begin to give jobs to deserving Galway residents,” said Cllr Lohan.

Social clauses have been used in Northern Ireland and Europe.

If they had been used during the Seamus Quirke Road upgrade project, Cllr Lohan said up to 16 local unemployed workers and apprentices would have been placed on the job by the out-of-town contractor who won the bid.

City Councillors unanimously supported a Notice of Motion calling on management at City Hall to progress the use of social clauses in public procurement contracts.

Cllr Lohan has met with the Council executive to discuss how the clauses will be implemented in the city on a practical level and effectively.