Galway City councillors unanimously passed a record €121.3m budget this week, but tempers frayed during the annual money meeting on Monday.
Total expenditure for 2024 will exceed the 2023 figure by more than €8m. Excluded from the ruling pact which has ran the local authority since 2019, some Fianna Fáil councillors grumbled, barked and loudly cackled amongst themselves as other councillors and officials attempted to dissect and explain the four-inch thick budget book setting-out spending priorities for 2024.
“Most ignorant – in fact total ignorance,” exclaimed Councillor Clodagh Higgins (FG ) addressing Fianna Fáil councillors John Connolly, Peter Keane and Alan Cheevers as their chatter interrupted an online contribution from Councillor Martina O’Connor (Green ) and another from Councillor Terr y O’Flaherty (Ind ) in the chamber. FF’s queiter councillors Mike Crowe and Imelda Byrne were logged in remotely. Dirty looks were flung all over the chamber.
Ruling pact members from Fine Gael, Labour, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and non-party councillors held three days of weekend budget meetings with City Council officials headed by interim chief executive Patricia Philbin and finance director Helen Kilroy. A final budget plan was drawn up in the small hours of Monday morning.
Through officials’ deft accountancy, mayor Eddie Hoare (FG ) confirmed an expected €7million deficit was averted, with increases to Rates, Local Property Tax (LPT ) or price hikes for council goods and services all avoided.
Officials confirmed major savings were made through lower than expected energy price inflation, pausing a planned eco retrofit of community centres, and rejecting “some asks” from council members. With local authority pay talks currently ongoing with trades unions, the City Council is assuming any wage increases will be funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Commercial rates are expected to bring in over €42m next year, with officials indicating more than half of rate-payers will see a deduction in their bill for 2024, with increases capped at less than 0.3%.
Galway City Council netted the lowest amount of Local Property Tax across all 31 local authorities in Ireland with a baseline of just over €4m to be returned by central government for 2024. This figure includes an extra €1.5m grant from government. However officials agreed with Councillor Donal Lyons’ description of this grant as “a three card trick” because a €1.5m grant for energy inflation has been simultaneously withdrawn. Total discretionary LPT income for Galway in 2024 will be over €6m, with almost half of it allocated to housing.
After tax income, 60% of Galway’s income will come from grants and subsidies (€42m ), with a further €30m expected from goods and services.
There was some budget agreement across the aisle, with Cllr Cheevers echoing Labour’s Níall McNelis’ concerns that the City was an “easy target” for price gougers when it tendered for outside contractors to provide goods and services.
McNelis said the people of Galway were “really missing out” as their city was funded by government as a second tier area akin to Leitrim, and called on the chief executive to redouble her efforts to secure top tier status for the city.
City East represenative Declan McDonnell (Ind ) said Galway’s city and county councils should budget together to appoint a European Officer tasked full-time to draw down as much grant funding from Brussels as possible. It is understood Donegal county council has been successful with a similar initiative.
