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Council chiefs accused of “whining” about Christmas Market
A report by City Hall lambasting the organisers of the Christmas Market has been dismissed by the majority of councillors as a “whine”, with officials urged to get on with overcoming any difficulties for this year’s event.
The review of last year’s event alleged a litany of mishaps concerning near missed deadlines, late changes to the market layout and opening ceremony, as well as health and safety breaches.
These had “placed unwarranted stress on those addressing if from the Council’s side”, according to the Council’s Director of Services for Recreation and Amenity, Tom Connell.
The extensive damage to the grass in Eyre Square could not be sustained while the “huge demands” on the Council’s Parks Section – which was “a detriment to the approved work programme” – was something organisers must address “with a more coherent, planned and systematic operation”, Mr Connell concluded.
Labour councillor Billy Cameron said if the amount of energy put into the report had been redirected to engaging with organisers, the event would have passed off without fault.
“To me it’s a whine. I can hear the violins behind it,” he quipped.
He queried what had happened to the €83,000 paid by Milestone Inventive since 2011 to stage the event, which the Council had stated would be ringfenced for work in the square.
Cllr Frank Fahy (FG) labelled the report as ‘slanderous’. He pointed out that other Councils paid money for similar events – Cork paid €80,000 for a Christmas parade while Waterford spent €150,000 on Winterval.
“Okay there are issues, but let’s go ahead and solve them,” he urged. “It’s very unfair in a democratic society to only get one half of the story there [the report].
Cllr Mike Crowe (FF) said it was the Galway City Business Association who came up with the concept and operated it themselves. He urged the Council to sit down with the event managers appointed by the association to find solutions to ensure the market operates in a manner that the people of Galway deserved.
Mr Connell said the report sought to set out the time and energy that went into managing the public amenity and was “not in any way designed to discredit the organiser”. Two thirds of the €30,000 bond had been repaid, with the remainder to be handed back by the end of June.
Just two voices of dissent united to take the Council’s side – councillors Padraig Conneely and Catherine Connolly. She told the Chamber she supported the idea of looking at alternative sites to Eyre Square and staging a market with far more crafts rather than demonising Council staff.
In her letter to councillors in the wake of the report, Maria Moynihan Lee, Managing Director of Milestone Inventive, said an additional €10,000 had been added to their fee, bringing it to €30,000, to specifically cover the cost of Galway City Council staff processing the licence application.
She said accusations of significant chopping and changing were untrue as the correspondence showed that any changes between application and build were minimal.
She also argued that the Council did not issue warnings over health and safety. While they did raise concerns – including use of a forklift on a path, wearing of hard hats and working at height on an unsuitable platform – these were swiftly responded to and addressed after they were raised in emails hours later, rather than on the spot.
The deterioration of the grass surface was also addressed following a review by a landscaping company. It found that surface water run-off, absence of drains, blocked drains, accumulation of fallen leaves and insufficient provision of essential maintenance tasks such as regular aeration, fertilisation and over-seeding combined to poor quality grass.
Compaction from continuous people traffic coupled with a poor grass root structure also contributed.
Milestone had begun an extensive reseeding and aerating project on the Square with some sections entirely re-turfed.
However, ongoing year-round maintenance was required, including the installation of a drainage system, diverting run off from the hard surfaces, de-compaction and aeration every eight weeks, over-seeding from late May, twice-yearly fertilising and monthly stimulant as well as twice-weekly grass cutting and leaf collection.
Cllr Fahy said it was a disgrace to hear of drainage problems in the Square after €15m had been spent on its upgrade.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
