City councillors put brakes on Galway 2020 funding increase

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Efforts to pump an additional €2.5 million of public funds into Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture met a stumbling block this week – after city councillors voted to defer a decision amid claims of a lack of clarity around the purpose of the money.

Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, asked councillors to release €2.5 million in funding immediately to Galway 2020, and it would be paid for with €1.25m coming out of the Council’s budget in 2021 and 2022.

To improve Galway 2020’s cashflow situation, he also wanted them to vote to change the Service Level Agreement between the Council and Galway 2020, to front-load money the Council had already pledged to the organisation.

But the special meeting of the local authority – which was a single item agenda – ended on Monday without agreement on the funding, as confusion reigned over what it would be used for.

It only emerged midway through the meeting that €600,000 of the €2.5 million was for wages and salaries of staff who had been seconded from the City Council to Galway 2020 – and the suggestion from Mr McGrath was that some of that €600,000, which hadn’t yet been sanctioned by elected members, had already been spent on staff costs in Galway 2020.

Although a number of councillors indicated they would support the grant aid, most elected members expressed reservations about the plan and the lack of detail they were presented.

Before confirming some of it was for staff costs, Mr McGrath initially said the money would be used for “additionality” and “additional” projects above and beyond what is already committed in the programme of events published by Galway 2020.

However, councillors were not satisfied with the level of detail provided about the projects that are to be added – and many of them questioned whether the projects were new at all.

Mr McGrath said the new money would be for new programming and events that would greatly enhance the overall offering of Galway 2020. And he insisted that the existing programme – costing €39.1 million – was “fully funded” and would proceed as planned whether or not councillors approved the extra €2.5m.

This assertion was disputed by a number of elected members, however – and it was undermined by figures relayed to the meeting by Patricia Philbin, CEO of Galway 2020, the company tasked to deliver the year-long cultural celebration.
This is a preview only. For extensive coverage, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here.