News
Traffic a threat to Galway’s long-term positive economic outlook
A leading Irish business and tax consultant has said that while the long-term economic prospects for Galway City are very positive, traffic, housing and lack of office space are posing a serious threat to growth.
Frank Walsh, Lead Partner with Grant Thornton, told the Connacht Tribune that there is “no place better than Galway” from an employee’s perspective.
Giving an overview of existing economic conditions and an outlook for the city and county, Mr Walsh said lending restrictions and lack of competition between banks are also stunting growth.
He also warned that towns and villages are probably already feeling the effects of the ‘Brexit’ vote.
“The outlook for Galway is very positive, but there are a few issues that will stop it in its own tracks unless they’re dealt with and that’s the planning, the traffic and availability of offices.
“Traffic is one of the biggest problems, and I think it’s choking the city. Just last week, I heard the story of a businessman coming out of one of the industrial estates in Galway heading to catch a plane.
“Because he was delayed for 30 minutes coming out of the estate, he missed his flight. How do you think he feels, and what impression do you think that will have left of Galway?
“There is a shortage of office space – not out in the industrial estates, but modern employers in the city centre who go where their customers are situated and where they can get employees. Young employees want to be where the action is,” said Mr Walsh, one of whose areas of expertise is tax advice on Foreign Direct Investment.
“If you could solve [those problems], there’s no place better to work than Galway City. Galway has loads to offer, it’s a fun place to be, it’s a young city which is very important and that’s because of the universities – it’s got students during the cold season and tourists in the warm season,” he said.
Mr Walsh said he believes the property market plays less of a role in Galway’s economy than a decade ago, but the shortage of supply for sale and rent is a huge obstacle to growth.
“We went off on a mad property party in 2005/6/7/8 and then someone took away the champagne in 2009 and we all came away with a major hangover, no money and very little property value in our pockets.
“The property market is not really an issue now – bar the shortage of supply – because banks are not giving out as much money, you have to have more equity yourself and they’re not competing with each other as much as they were.
“There’s a problem on the supply side; the banks are not giving money to developers and the planning process moves very slowly. Maybe we need to look at taking away controls from local authorities on giving planning permission and maybe centralising it.
“They need to do something to speed up the planning process – if a project is being held up at that point, it’ll be a long time before more supply comes on the market. In Galway City, you can’t get a house . . . you can’t rent, you can’t buy,” he said.
Mr Walsh said many rural towns and villages in Galway are continuing to struggle: “The boom bypassed them, but the recession hit them.”
“If you go out to Connemara, you’ll find very little happening out there. There’s probably a spin-off in terms of tourism uplift, and there’s no doubt the Wild Atlantic Way has been very helpful for tourism, but not everybody is involved in tourism out there.
“There’d be a lot of labourers, farmers – small farmers – and I’m sure they’re suffering. They will suffer more because of Brexit.”
He said that because sterling had dropped in value, the cost of trade with the UK had increased.
“If you’re a farmer selling your produce to Kepak, they have to sell into the UK and they’re going to get less in euro terms. Then the farmers will suffer.
“You have the fall in sterling, the uncertainty and whether we have a Free Trade Agreement within that area – at the moment, that’s having a bad effect.
“Our biggest tourist source is the UK. If you’re getting paid stg£100, it’s not going to go as far in Ireland as it did before, or any place else in Europe. They might still be coming, but they’ll have less to spend, and I think that will have an effect.
“Business hates uncertainty; banks won’t lend, they’ll hold back on making decisions, people will hold back on a decision to buy a house or expand their business because they don’t know what the future will look like,” said Mr Walsh.
He expects the rural population to continue to migrate towards the city, which will also have an effect on villages.
“There’s always a drift to the city, that’s what we’ve seen in history in every place else in the world. I can’t see Galway county being any different and that’s going to have its own effect. There’ll be less people to spend money in shops in villages and smaller towns, but more people in the bigger towns,” said Mr Walsh.
He said his company is now extremely busy with business and tax advice, and staff levels in Galway have increased from ten people in 2012 to 40 at the moment, and a further ten jobs will be created over the coming year.
“Our own view on the city is very, very positive. We’re getting a lot of local work and we’re growing, and our experience has been very good so far.
“Our main work is auditing and accounting, business advisory and tax consultancy. We’ve done very well in receiverships and liquidations, we don’t see that as a long-term prospect at all.
“We see a lot of growth in business advisory . . . we have more people in Galway employed in tax advice and auditing than we have doing receiverships and liquidations.
“We see growth in business coming into Galway and existing businesses expanding, and setting up new ventures. We’re very happy to invest and have taken a long-term very positive view of Galway,” said Mr Walsh.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
