Council’s €40m miscalculation

Date Published: 06-Jul-2007

Amajor rowis set to erupt at a meeting of Galway City Council next Monday evening over a €40 million miscalculation in a plan to buy up private houses around the city.

It is the latest in a series of embarrassing debacles, some of which have cost the city millions of euro in recent years.

And yesterday, the Galway City Tribune forced red-faced Council officials to climb down over their denials that they had pulled out of a series of purchase deals.

The Galway City Tribune understands that the local authority had sought Government funding of €60million for their Housing Programme for 2007— funds that would be used to buy up properties in private estates around the city, as well as buying cut-price Social and Affordable units from developers.

However, the Council received just a fraction of that funding request — believed to be just over €20million, which has already been spent.

The error has led to the Council…………………………….