Instead of forking out more than €720,000 to rent office space at the Grammasr School, the Galway City Council should put that money to better use in this “time of budget constraints”.
This is the view of the Mayor of Galway Cllr Padraig Conneely. He is calling on City Hall to defer the proposed move of its transport and infrastructure department to new offices in the Grammar School on College Road.
The offices at the school are intended to accommodate 50 staff. The term of the rental/lease will be for four years and 11 months and cost €143,878 a year. This will work out at €720,000 for five years.
“The Galway City Council failed to purchase the Grammar School when it came to the market five years ago when it was being sold for €1.7 million,” he told the Galway Advertiser. “Now it proposes to lease 4,700sq ft at a cost of €720,000. It doesn’t make sense to me to be spending that kind of money at this time of budget constraints. The decision should be deferred and this money put to better use.”