No indication where road shortfall will come from

Date Published: 17-Nov-2011

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Galway City Council has refused to confirm that public coffers will have to be ‘dipped into’ to fund a potential overrun on the Seamus Quirke Road project of up to €6.5 million.

And a councillor said the public has “lost confidence” in the Council to complete the project on time. The contract for the project was signed for €10m – however a series of serious delays has led to costly overruns and a series of claims from the contractor going to conciliation.

Councillors now claim funding and borrowing for the project is headed for €16.5m.

Chair of the Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Mike Crowe said €6m in funding was raised from the Border Midlands West Regional Assembly, National Transport Authority and Department of Transport, the remaining €4m to be provided by the City Council.

However, he said that €4m loan had since become €9m – €450,000 per annum for 20 years – and further funding of €1.5m has since been sought from the Department.

At a meeting of the local authority earlier this week, Cllr Crowe asked Director of Services for Transportation and Infrastructure Ciarán Hayes if the overrun could be covered without significant impact on the day-to-day running of city services, but was not answered.

The Galway City Tribune put the same question to the Council yesterday and was told: “Any increased costs which may occur in future could result in us reassessing the funding package and may result in us applying to the Department and NTA for funding.”

However, the Department told this newspaper last month that funding for the project was already capped.

“In the case of the Seamus Quirke Road the Department is only part funding the project. In addition the Department has capped its maximum funding contribution towards the project,” a Department spokesperson said.

But Cllr Crowe said the public had lost confidence in the timescale which they Council has laid out for the project – it was initially to be completed last month, then December, then February and the latest completion estimate is at the end of March next.

“I want clarification on the additional funding – where is it going to come from and how is it going to impact on the day-to-day running of the Council. We have a Draft Budget to look at in a couple of weeks, we need clarification,” said Cllr Crowe.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.