An ongoing dispute between councillors and city officials over the provision of a Sunday burial service continued this week, with councillors succeeding in stalling the decision until the end of the year.
The case has continued since March when an attempt by Galway City Council to scrap Sunday burials at cemeteries across the city was temporarily suspended. The suspension was pending a review of staffing levels in July.
Director of Services Ciarán Hayes said that due to the council not complying with the Working Time Act, which outlines the legal obligation for workers to have a certain amount of rest time, the council will have to stop the service unless it employs six additional staff.
At an estimated cost of €210,000 the new staff would be required to provide a full burial service up to seven days a week. Currently the council only has one staff member who has a contract allowing him to work on Sundays.
An application for permission to employ the extra staff has been made, but no feedback has been received to date from the Government.
Councillors argued that officials should give the Government time to respond and to give councillors an opportunity to find funding for staff, if necessary, before stopping the service.
Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely said: “It should be a last resort to tamper with burials and funerals. It’s a vulnerable time and people do not need the added trauma. The tradition is here and we need to find out how we can be more flexible to allow for it.”
It was agreed by officials and councillors that Sunday burials will continue until December 31 in order to give more time to finding a solution to the problem.
