Labour and Fine Gael are engaged in a fierce struggle with the Independent former PD councillors to form an electoral and mayoral pact ahead of Monday’s city council meeting which will decide who the next Mayor of Galway will be.
The most likely outcome is that Labour and the Independents will do a deal, but Fine Gael is still planning on putting together its own pact. There is plenty of time between now and Monday’s meeting in City Hall to elect a mayor for anything to happen.
In what reads like a Cold War espionage novel, involving secret meetings, spies, covert messages, and a propaganda war, Labour, Fine Gael, and the three former PD Independents, are locked in a battle as to who can do a deal with whom soonest.
The victors will be able to divide the mayoralty between them as well as the top posts in the council’s strategic policy committees over the next five years. Despite the fact that councillors’ powers have been reduced greatly over the last decade, a pact also has the potential to operate as a voting block to influence council policy, if at all possible.
As City Hall has 15 councillors, a pact of eight or more is needed to secure a majority. As things stand, the next pact may be Labour and Fine Gael (eight seats ), Labour and the three former PD Independents (eight seats ), or Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/former PD Independents (nine seats ).
Labour sources told the Galway Advertiser how the party fears it will be frozen out by the others and that the council will be controlled by an alliance of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Independent councillors Terry O’Flaherty, Donal Lyons, and Declan McDonnell.
However Fine Gael claim the next pact will be Labour and the Independents. Fine Gael has cancelled a planned meeting with Labour tomorrow after remarks made by Cllr Terry O’Flaherty on Galway Bay FM that Labour had offered her a term as mayor in exchange for support.
“We are not dealing with Labour anymore,” Fine Gael councillor Brian Walsh told the Galway Advertiser. “How can they offer something to Cllr O’Flaherty and offer the same thing to us?”
Fine Gael now says it will see if it can hold meetings with the Independents and Fianna Fáil to see if it can form an alliance before Labour can do a deal with the former PDs. However FG will have to move fast as a meeting between Labour and Declan McDonnell took place last night.
Labour and Fine Gael are both vying for supremacy in City Hall. Labour claims it is talking to all “interested parties”, but Fine Gael is accusing Labour of ignoring FG. It also alleges that Labour is being greedy by seeking to do a deal with the Independents which would leave Labour with four mayoral terms over the next five years.
It is understood Labour met separately with Cllr Donal Lyons and Cllr Declan McDonnell in the Menlo Park Hotel on Sunday to discuss the possibility of forming a pact. Fine Gael discovered this and was annoyed Labour had not come to it first. However Labour has countered, saying FG was holding talks with other councillors in the Meyrick on Monday morning.
Fine Gael and Labour met on Tuesday evening in the Westwood Hotel. Fine Gael council leader Cllr Brian Walsh told the Labour team of his “annoyance” that they had gone to the Independents first, especially as FG had “honoured our part” in the 2004 - 2009 pact which also involved Labour and Fine Gael.
“Fine Gael is deeply unhappy and will do whatever we can to make sure we are part of the next pact in the council,” said Cllr Walsh. “Hildegarde Naughton, who secured a great vote in Galway City West, would make a great mayor. So we will deal with Fianna Fáil and the Independents and give them consideration.”
However Fine Gael is now pessimistic it can secure a deal that will create a pact and feels that the advantage now lies with Labour forming an alliance with Terry O’Flaherty, Donal Lyons, and Declan McDonnell.
Yet Labour feels a deal with the Independents is going to be tricky as Cllr O’Flaherty has expressed unease about any further opposition to the Galway City Outer Bypass and the Salthill Airshow on the new council. Labour has been opposed to both in the past
