Galway County Council comes in for unexpected €20m windfall

Galway County Council has come in for an unexpected €20 million windfall, following the abolition of Ballinasloe Town Council.

The money was the proceeds of the operation of the old landfill site at Poolboy which closed down back in 2005.

The landfill site was operated by Ballinasloe Town Council who accumulated €20 million in profits over a six year period prior to its closure.

But Cllr Michael Finnerty said that as this money was generated in Ballinasloe, it should be used for Ballinasloe projects into the future.

“I never want to hear the words ‘we have no funds available’ when it comes to projects such as road repairs, hedge cutting, tourism projects or anything else when it comes to Ballinasloe.

“Even the interest on €20 million at one percent would cover the cost of maintenance to the local authority houses in Ballinasloe and allow us the luxury to get rid of paid parking,” Cllr. Finnerty added.

The Fine Gael councillor described it as Ballinasloe’s ‘dowry’ to Galway County Council following the abolition of the town board.

Cllr Finnerty was speaking at the meeting of Ballinasloe Municipal Council and he asked officials what their plans were for the €20 million windfall.

Director of Finance Ger Mullarkey said that the funding was being used for the ongoing maintenance of the landfill site at Poolboy. He said that the funding would not be forming part of the Ballinasloe Municipal Council’s budget.

But Cllr. Finnerty replied that the amount spent on the landfill site was only a small fraction of this huge amount of money that had been accumulated.

“If the €20 million was simply earmarked for the ongoing maintenance of the old landfill site, then it would last around 350 years,” he said.

He said that he expected that the funding would be used for projects in Ballinasloe and allowed the officials time in which to respond to him with their intentions for the €20 million.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.