Council merger will hit city coffers

The city will lose out on major tourism and infrastructural funding as a result of an announcement this week of the decision to amalgamate the city and county councils.

That’s according to former Mayor, Cllr Padraig Conneely, who said that the city would also lose out on arts and literary benefits which would now have to be shared with the county.

He was voicing his anger after confirmation that the two local bodies would amalgamate no later than 2021. Local elections scheduled for next year will still go ahead as planned.

The merger has been mooted for the past three years with several reports and committees recommending the move.

However, it has been strongly resisted by councillors on both the City and County Councils who believe that both authorities are completely different and that one body cannot rule for both.

Former Mayor Cllr Padraig Conneely said that the move would be detrimental for the city and that it would lose out on major funding for the arts, tourism and infrastructural projects.

He said that the funding that the city receives will be ‘slashed’ as it will have to be shared out with the county.

“We are the biggest losers in this move”, he told The City Tribune.

Members of Galway County Council are equally unhappy as the majority believe that the city will be the main beneficiary of the annual local authority budget.

Local Government Minister John Paul Phelan confirmed the controversial merger of the two local authorities which means that the body will now have 57 elected members – 39 in the county and 18 in the city.

City Manager Brendan McGrath and county CEO Kevin Kelly were part of the Expert Advisory Group that recommended the amalgamation.

See full story in this week’s Galway City Tribune.