City Council facing €5m budget deficit

Galway City Council is facing a budget deficit of €5m this year due to councillors repeatedly bowing to requests for funding making the gap between income and expenditure “virtually unbridgeable” for officials.
City Chief Executive Brendan McGrath was arguing his case for a retention of Local Property Tax for next year at current levels, which councillors have discretion to vary up or down by up to 15%.
A decrease of 15% – as proposed by Sinn Féin Councillor Mairéad Farrell – would have cut the council’s coffers by €1.2m and would have returned €33.75 to 77% of property owners in the city.
Mr McGrath said he was not exaggerating when saying the gap was virtually unbridgeable between the amount the city had to spend and the money it was bringing in – 7% more than the budget allowed.
He asked where he would find the €400,000 in staff costs needed to run the two new community centres in Knocknacarra and Ballinfoile.
The main pedestrian thoroughfare through the city was “in diabolical order” and needed serious investment. Rusheen Bay would be washed away without investing €12m in an upgrade. An offer of €3.5m in funding for capital projects from the Northern and Western Regional Assembly (NWRA) would have to matched and built within three years if it was to be successful.
The European Capital of Culture 2020 bid would also take serious amounts of money to win, but would be a game changer if successful and well worth the investment for the future.
“I can’t wave a magic wand and make it happen unless you provide the money,” he exclaimed.
Cllr Farrell’s motion – supported by two party colleagues and independents Catherine Connolly and Mike Cubbard – fell after Cllr Donal Lyons’ motion to retain the same LPT received 16 votes in favour.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.