Connacht Tribune
Cost forced local authorities to consider pulling out of 2020
Galway’s two local authority chiefs discussed ‘pulling out’ of running the city’s European Capital of Culture 2020 programme because they can’t afford it.
Brendan McGrath, Chief Executive of Galway City Council, described pulling out as a “doomsday scenario”, as he made the suggestion to Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Galway County Council.
The Culture Capital programme is a joint initiative of both Councils but is being led by the city.
However, Mr McGrath suggested they might have to reduce the local authority involvement or “pull out altogether” due to budget fears.
He warned the Councils weren’t going to meet the 2017 targets they’d set-out in the bid book that won the designation, which would have negative implications for pilot projects and partnerships.
The explosive email exchange was released to the Connacht Tribune following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
“I think we need to definitively agree if we can collectively meet the budgetary challenge to run ECOC 2020 (European Capital of Culture),” Mr McGrath said in an email to Mr Kelly.
He added: “If we have any concerns in this regard, notwithstanding the implications, we would be better making an early call to this effect and notifying the Department and the EU to let them make alternative arrangements, if they chose to.
“I know this is the doomsday scenario but if we have any doubt at all, the sooner the better we grasp the nettle. It would, in my opinion be better, however undesirable, to pull out early rather than to try produce something that would not reflect well on either authority.
“Other options might be to let a body such as the university (NUIG) lead out as annunciated by their president at the recent final meeting of the steering group.
“If we have to reduce our LA (local authority) involvement or to pull out altogether, we should explore all other options soon before coming to such a conclusion. However, we need early clarity in principle on where we think we are going in the next week or two,” Mr McGrath told Mr Kelly.
The email was dated last October, and was sent as both Councils were preparing budgets for 2017.
Mr McGrath warned that the 2017 budget position will mean “telescoping three years of preparation into two years”.
“This is a retrograde step . . . but though necessary it is highly undesirable. It will also mean having to make significant and additional catch-up budgetary provision in 2018 to make up for lost ground,” he warned.
Mr McGrath said the City Council like the County Council was “struggling with balancing its budget for 2017”.
“After much effort we had struggled to propose the inclusion of €1.2 million to provide funding for 2017. This would have been considerably less than the minimum needed to drive the project forward at the required and desired pace.
“The second Bid Book envisaged that a budget of €44.2m would be needed in 2017 for the project. It was expected that this sum would largely come from both LAs (local authorities) as neither the State nor the EU funding would start to flow until later in 2019 and into 2020 itself.”
He pointed out that the bid up to that point had cost €1.8 million, all bar €20,000 of which was paid for by the City Council.
He said he was “concerned at the absence to date of any definitive arrangement surrounding the funding regime”.
Mr McGrath warned that the budget for 2017 would be €4 million less than what they said it would be in its bid book.
This would result in “very negative repercussions for later in the process, delaying many critical aspects of the bid”.
He further warned in the email: “Major concerns will be not being able to drive forward business engagement to any significant extent and also not being able to put a communication strategy and communication team in place. Our ability to engage with national institutions will be badly impacted upon as well as our capacity to develop further pilot projects. Lastly, but by no means least, there will be a large negative impact on building and developing the European partnerships.”
Mr McGrath’s email was in response to Mr Kelly requesting that the ECOC team give presentation to County Councillors.
“My hope is that the presentation will provide sufficient information to enable me to subsequently undertake a conversation with the members in order to facilitate a decision of the members on the amount of the County’s financial input to ECOC,” Mr Kelly said.
In a follow-up email in November, Mr Kelly said: “While the members have given a firm commitment regarding part funding of ECOC the actual amount/share has to be determined”.
He gave a commitment to work on that “subsequent to agreement” from councillors. The pair agreed to meet to discuss the issues.
Last week marked the first anniversary of the day Galway was announced as the 2020 European Capital of Culture. There had been murmurings about the financial outlay for the event but this is the first time the chief executives of the Councils were so explicit about the implications a lack of money will have.
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.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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