Council is ‘too reliant’ on private consultants

By Dara Bradley

City Hall is over-reliant on costly private consultants to carry out studies regarding proposed transport improvement projects in the city, it was claimed this week.

Officials were quizzed at a Strategic Policy Committee meeting as to why so many projects are being farmed out to private sector consultants for design and ‘consultancy’.

Labour Party City Councillor Nuala Nolan, during a discussion on the updated Smarter Travel funding for projects to improve travel and public transport infrastructure in Galway, questioned why more work isn’t done in-house.

Of the list of 27 projects being pursued by Galway City Council this year under Smarter Travel, at least seven of them involve private consultants and engineers.

Cllr Nolan pointed out that RPS Consulting Engineers have been appointed to do a ‘Salmon Weir crossing study’; AECOM consultants are doing a ‘bus and cycle network demand assessment and prioritisation’; consultants are to be procured for variable message and parking guidance signs; Tobin Engineers were appointed for the design of a coach-link improving connectivity between Ceannt Station and Galway Coach Station; design consultants are to be procured for the proposed pedestrian crossing south of Eyre Square; tender documents are to be prepared for a tour bus parking study; and consultants will also be used for the Dangan Greenway plan.

Cllr Nolan said she recognised that not everything can be done in-house, and that outside expertise is often necessary.

However, she worried that tens of thousands of Euro was being spent on consultants and engineers when the work could be done by City Council staff.

 “If we have X amount of engineers in the City Council, who are employed full-time to do this sort of stuff, why are we spending so much money on outside consultants? We should be using our own engineers, particularly for the stuff that we have the expertise in-house to deal with.

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