City Council calls Galway 2020 team to account

Key personnel involved in Galway 2020 – the company established to deliver the European Capital of Culture project – will be invited to attend a meeting of Galway City Council to explain exactly how public money was spent.

Mayor of Galway, Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) has agreed to a request by City Councillor Alan Cheevers (FF), to invite Galway 2020 into the Council chamber again to give further details about aspects of the event that went wrong.

Cllr Cheevers said the businesses of Galway City who incurred increased commercial rates to fund Galway 2020 were entitled to know how their money was spent.

Chief among his questions are the cost of the opening ceremony at the Swamp that was cancelled due to a storm, and the cost of severance packages for employees of Galway 2020 who controversially departed the company.

“I’ve asked that Arthur Lappin (Chair of the Board of Galway 2020), Patricia Philbin (Chief Executive of Galway 2020) and Marilyn Gaughan (Head of Programme) come before the City Council to give us detailed figures about Galway 2020 and a breakdown of the costs,” explained Cllr Cheevers.

“We want answers on the cancellation of the Galway 2020 opening ceremony at the Swamp, and how much did that cost. I also want to know how much it cost to cover the severance packages for staff who left – we’ve never got any details about that,” he said.

Galway 2020 is currently finalising a review – like all capitals of culture have to do once the year ends – and it is expected to be published in the coming weeks.

Cllr Cheevers said he hoped that the report would be ready when the team at Galway 2020 comes before councillors.

“This is not all in the past. There are a lot of unanswered questions. People paid higher commercial rates on top of their existing commercial rates to fund Galway 2020 and they haven’t got answers as to where their money was spent.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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