Arthouse cinema funds ‘an absolute scandal’

The City Council has agreed to pump another €250,000 into the Arthouse Cinema project – at the same meeting, councillors failed to secure €10,000 for a local dogs charity.

The Arthouse Cinema project has been described by a local councillor as ‘an absolute scandal’ in terms of the wads of public money being poured into it.

Cllr. Michael Crowe said that it was very strange that another €250,000 could be approved for the cinema project while at the same time the MADRA dogs charity were crying out for just €10,000 to fill the gap left by the temporary closure of the City Council’s dog pound.

“Really there comes a time when you can pay just too much for gold. We have given them (Arthouse Cinema) a site worth €1.9 million, then an allocation of €200,000, followed by another €200,000 and now €250,000.

“That’s a total of €2,550,000 from us, not to mention the money that’s come directly from central funds. Do we as a City Council really have this kind of money to give out, when there are so many other needs around the city,” said Cllr. Crowe.

He told the Galway City Tribune that after all this public money being pumped into the project, it would then be handed over to a private concern for another €850,000, who would then have a 25 year lease on the facility.

Backers of the cinema claim that the jinxed project – now under construction for six years – will be the focal point of a cultural hub in the Spanish Arch-Lower Merchants Road area.

Earlier this year, Arts Minister Heather Humphreys approved a grant of €735,000 for the Solas Picture Palace, while the Chair of the Picture Palace Board, Lelia Doolan, said its completion would be “a monument to competence, perseverance, endurance and the goodwill of the people of Galway”.

Another former Mayor of the city, Cllr Padraig Conneely, has claimed that the Arthouse Cinema project had gobbled up a staggering €8 million in taxpayers’ hard-earned money. He described it as a “a concrete monument to mismanagement and incompetence”.

The Picture Palace – when completed – will be a three-screen arthouse cinema with 340 seats, as well as a café, bar and bookshop. It had been due for completion in 2011 but has missed a series of deadlines for completion over the years.