Leisureland peace talk hopes are sunk

A last ditch bid to broker a compromise between the chief executive of Galway City Council and the swimming and water polo clubs who have refused to return to Leisureland over price increases failed this week after a series of heated meetings.

City Chief Executive Brendan McGrath has now issued the five clubs with a deadline of March 9 to come back to him with a deal or he will reallocate the slots – which brought in income of around €250,000 before the fee hikes.

The clubs are standing firm in their opposition to any increased charges, insisting they were already paying double the national average to use the public facility before it was closed for 11 months due to storm damage.

A row over a proposed increase of 55% in charges for the clubs led to five of the seven board members of Leisureland resigning. That was negotiated down to 20% by Mr McGrath following fractious meetings with the club.

The tone of those meetings was conveyed in an email later sent by Vincent Finn, Connacht Regional Support Officer with Swim Ireland, to Mr McGrath, which he in turn then forwarded to councillors in an update on the negotiations.

In the email, Mr Finn said following six meetings, the Chief Executive had not listened to a word the club representatives had said.

“Instead you choose to believe the tripe that was fed to you by your staff. You choose to ignore the unanimous decisions of the board and the entire elected City Council,” he wrote.

“Good luck with your plan B and C. You had the chance to save clubs who work so hard to provide a structured and safe environment for children in the city of Galway, but you choose to fail them. Well done.”

One of the board members who did not resign, Cllr Padraig Conneely, said the Chief Executive had bent over backwards to reach a deal.

“The clubs have become hard line. They certainly haven’t been cooperative in arranging meetings. For example they wanted seven days written notice before meeting with the Chief Executive and then only after working hours,” remarked Cllr Conneely.

“The Chief Executive has facilitated them at every turn, last Monday he stayed in City Hall until 11pm to meet them – this is not the way to do business.

“Leisureland will have to move on if the clubs don’t agree to compromise like everyone else. We cannot wait forever. Four months has already been lost since €4.4m was spent on refurbishing it. It is losing €400,000 a year, paid for by the taxpayer, it can’t continue to be a drain on city finances and must be run as a more commercial enterprise.”

Mr Finn rejected any criticism of the clubs by Cllr Conneely.

“The clubs are in negotiation with Mr McGrath and until those are concluded we will be making no comment. We are hopeful we will be able to come to an agreement and get this sorted,” he told the Galway City Tribune.

“As far as Cllr Conneely is concerned, he hasn’t picked up the phone to the clubs since this all happened. He voted twice not to increase prices. We have no interest whatsoever what he has to say.”