Mediator attempts to resolve Leisureland standoff

Swimming clubs will hear back this week whether one of their two proposals to return to Leisureland will be accepted by the city’s top official following a meeting with a mediator appointed to resolve the row over price hikes.

The mediator, Gar Holohan, is founder of Aura Holohan Leisure, which privately manages nine swimming pools and gyms around the country.

Several meetings have been held with the five clubs to broker an impasse to the standoff, which has left young swimmers scrambling for lanes in other pools at ungodly hours while Leisureland has been limping along without the €300,000 revenue generated from the clubs through hiring lanes to train members and hold swimming classes.

The row has also left Leisureland without a governing board following the mass resignation of all but two directors in the wake of the price hikes which were proposed for the facility when it reopened last December following a total revamp required by the storm damage.

City Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath appointed the mediator when he was unable to reach an agreement with the clubs, which had descended into an angry war of words in a series of emails.

A spokesman for the clubs said yesterday that the meeting on Wednesday was positive and they now awaited Mr Holohan’s recommendations and the decision of Mr McGrath by next week.

“We have shown our accounts which prove we are not-for-profit clubs,” said a spokesman.

“The clubs wait anxiously for this to be sorted. We still believe that the problems with the running of Leisureland need to be addressed in order for things to be turned around.

“We can’t continue to have children getting up at 4am because they have no access to a pool in normal hours. One club has lost half its members so it will not survive.”

He declined to state publicly their proposals for fear it would jeopardise talks.

An item on the agenda of Galway City Council last week to replace the directors – including three councillors – who resigned was again adjourned pending the outcome of the negotiations with the swimming clubs.

Director of Services Joe O’Neill, speaking on behalf of the absent Mr McGrath, said the chief executive was hopeful it could be resolved before the next council meeting.

“There are some encouraging signs, at least there’s been some engagement with Gar Holohan. It’s not a satisfactory situation. The Board hasn’t met at all this year.”

Cllr Pearce Flannery (FG) said he had been asking to see the management accounts since last July in line with legal requirements.

However Mr O’Neill said this could not be done at present as only two directors remained on the Board, which was not a quorum or legally binding number for a board.

“The focus has been on solving the problem between ourselves and the clubs. That’s the fundamental problem at the moment, that the clubs aren’t in there.”

Cllr Mike Crowe (FF) said all other occupiers have had their rates increased but have got on with it.

“Most of the hours that the clubs had haven’t been allocated . . . we have hired an outside consultant. Six months on and we still haven’t got a resolution. We’ve missed an opportunity to get more revenue in.”

Cllr Peter Keane (FF) described the manner and pace of reaching an agreement as “shambolic in the extreme”.

Councillors agreed to his motion that the directors’ positions be filled at the June meeting, whatever the outcome of the talks with clubs.