CITY TRIBUNE
Grants for Irish language arts groups come under fire
From the Galway City Tribune – There was fierce criticism of Galway City Council’s decision to award a paltry sum to Irish language arts groups – from a €400,000 pot divided up between 57 organisations.
Fibín at An Taibhdhearc – Ireland’s national Irish language theatre on Middle Street – had applied for a grant of €20,000 for 2022 from the Council’s Arts Funding Committee for an agreed professional theatre project. Instead, it was awarded €2,000 – up from €1,000 the year before.
Councillor John Connolly (FF), speaking ‘as Gaeilge’, first questioned the grant to An Taibhdhearc, pointing out that the award did not demonstrate that the Council was serious about promoting Galway as Ireland’s only bilingual city.
Cllr Frank Fahy (FG) described the sum as “derisory”, while Cllr Imelda Bryne (FF) asked whether the City’s Irish Language Officer was on the committee deciding the grants.
Among the other groups which did not fare well was the Ballinfoile Castlegar Neighbourhood Centre Youth Theatre, which had put in an application for €5,000 and received €950, despite their aim to “engage young people in theatre with emphasis on 13-16-year-olds from diverse backgrounds”.
Art in Mind, an artists’ work and exhibition space in Liosbán, which “supports artists in the areas of arts and mental health”, was granted €1,000, yet had applied for €22,500.
The biggest recipient again this year was the Galway International Arts Festival, which applied for €70,000, but received €46,000. In the coming years, it – and other major grants to arts organisations – would be “considered under the differentiated model to be developed”, councillors were told.
“Further supports from the Arts Office programme and other Galway City Council funding programmes to be considered particularly in light of significant expansion of the programme in 2022 past-Covid-19 pandemic.”
The other top grants went to The Galway Arts Centre, which got €35,000, and Druid Theatre, which was awarded €28,000, and the Galway Music Residency, granted €26,000 as requested.
Macnas received €24,000 – €26,000 less than it had pitched for – but €5,000 more than last year.
Galway City Arts Officer Gary McMahon said the company had proposed to stage a series of events around the October Bank Holiday, but there would be no massive parade at Halloween due to concerns raised by statutory bodies over health and safety. Because of this it was recommended to revert to the funding level of 2019.
Cllr Declan McDonnell (Ind) accused the committee of “a cut and paste exercise”, claiming that the grants were 99% the same as the year before.
Mr McMahon denied this, saying 14 of the 57 allocations had increases, decreases or were new applications.
He pointed out that An Taibhdhearc was not dependent solely on Galway City Council for its funding, with money granted by Roinn na Gaeltachta, Foras na Gaeilge, and Ealaín na Gaeltachta.
He described those working in Fíbín as “a fabulous bunch of people” who were staging great work in An Taibhdhearc as well as on the streets and in the arts festival. The group had received grants under the Council’s Local Live Performance Scheme during the pandemic.
He noted that other bilingual groups, such as Branar Theatre and Moonfish, had received allocations.
Branar Theatre, which created shows for children, received €8,000, up €1,000 on 2021, but far short of the €25,000 they asked for. Moonfish got €6,000, the same as last year but half of what was requested.
A total of €400,000 was divided out between the 57 groups, which was the biggest grant to arts organisations from any local authority in the country.
Mr McMahon pointed out that almost €785,000 had been applied for. “There is no way we could have kept everyone happy. We work with what you have allocated for the budget.”
(Photo: The Fibín theatre company)
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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