Crusading Ciaran leaves with few regrets

City Lives – Ciarán Hayes tells Bernie Ní Fhlatharta about the vision and drive needed to create a better city

Ciarán Hayes believes that people like him shouldn’t be ‘faceless bureaucrats’  which is why he is probably one of the best known council executives in the city.

In the New Year, his name will be better known to Sligo people when he takes up his new position as its new County (and City) Manager.

This is his last week working with Galway City Council, an end to his time in the Local Authority, which he joined 21 years ago as a Housing Officer.

When the Dubliner came to work in Galway, it was his fourth move within the public sector and he was determined from the start to help bring one of the fastest growing cities in Europe into the twentieth century, technology-wise.

It was his brief to incorporate as much technology as was needed to help make not only the Council offices and administration more efficient, but also the whole city. And he approached it with the single-minded determination that he is known for, by learning as much as he could about it.

During our interview he demonstrated how he has access to the live camera output from the Galway Transportation Office, which he helped set up and which he is so proud of. Whenever he feels homesick for Galway – and he admits to having mixed feelings about leaving – he can tune in to this traffic app on his iPhone!

As Director of Services for Transportation and Infrastructure, Ciarán has always believed that the free flow of traffic depends as much on electronic live information between traffic lights as it does on the provision of bus lanes. His Department came in for a lot of flak when the roundabout at Moneenageisha was removed and replaced with traffic lights in 2009, but he is confident that the decision to replace the city roundabouts with lights will prove to be the best one.

“The biggest issue facing the city for years was the traffic, but replacing the roundabouts is only part of an overall solution. Another part is traffic control, having a good network of public transport, bus lanes, real-time traffic information and the (electronic) linking of traffic lights. The number of cars has increased in recent years so the road network certainly needs to be improved in and around the city. The Galway City Outer Bypass is badly needed to relieve east/west traffic that could be taken out of the city network.

“A working park-and-ride and a school transport network would also be part of the solution to the traffic gridlock that Galway experiences. Strangely, the delay of the Outer Bypass has forced our hand to work on some of these solutions, such as introducing bus lanes and improving public transport.

“Part of our job as executives is to be able to bring stakeholders along with us and to communicate our vision for a better city . . . and sometimes you have to be relentless, as it is not always possible to reach a compromise,” he says.

But Ciarán sees this as a challenge that is all in a day’s work. “I have never subscribed to the view that we should be faceless bureaucrats. If we are paid to enhance the city, of course some of those decisions will be difficult but they have to be addressed,” he adds, mentioning the through-traffic proposal for Merlin Woods as one of the current difficult decisions that he won’t be around to oversee.

He says he appreciates that elected representatives have a different approach as they try to keep everyone happy, something that is very difficult when it involves particularly strong lobby groups.

“It’s critical that we have a good working relationship with [Council] members. And we also have to work closely with unions, Government departments and agencies, as well as the media; all requiring managing.

“What we are is managing a very complex set of institutions as executives doing business in a very public forum. Our board of directors are the Councillors but because the meetings are in public, it is sometimes hard to deal with issues,” he adds though he is hardly suggesting Council meetings be held in camera. In fact, he believes, the sooner they are webcast, the better, as they might be more civil, referring to the occasional outburst from the floor!

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