Money was there all along

Date Published: 13-Jul-2007

Funding for Galway City Council to purchase 25 private houses in the city was available all along, it emerged this morning.

Dozens of homeowners — some with crippling double mortgages and serious financial worries — will now have their homes purchased after all.

A month ago, it emerged the Council had reneged on around 25 commitments to purchase houses in the mistaken belief they did not have sufficient funding. In many cases, booking deposits were paid by the Council.

The local authority have come under intense local and national pressure since the Galway City Tribune broke the story on June 22.

Despite previously issuing categorical denials that the deals ever existed, the Council were left red-faced last week when they were forced to acknowledge the deals had fallen through.

And despite being made aware by the Department of the Environment on June 1 that they had access to €45million in funding, officials still believed they had no funds.

Their woes worsened this week when a Department of the Environment official held a ‘behind closed doors’ meeting in City Hall to explain funding was there all along.

In a statement, Minister of State Batt O’Keeffe — who has a special responsibility for housing — told this newspaper that last April, the City Council were given €20million.

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