Councillor Níall McNelis will be seeking re-selection as the Labour Party’s candidate for Galway City’s west ward at a party convention in Knocknacarra on Thursday, March 19.
First elected in 2009, the former city mayor is expected to be selected without contest at a convention to be chaired by Labour’s agriculture and marine spokesman, Alan Kelly TD.
Speaking to the Advertiser, McNelis listed a range of local, citywide and regional issues he wants to focus on if re-elected at the upcoming council elections in June.
“Galway is a tale of two cities at present; we’re a shining light in terms of economy, the arts and tourism, but rising rents, poor public transport and no school places tells a different story for people’s day-to-day lives,” he said. “This is not the fault of the immigrant, or Galwegians forced to leave, but long-term lack of investment. I’ve been saying it for years: It takes around €100m to run Galway each year, and the city raises €62m of that, but government gives us the same funding as rural Leitrim.”
As a politician, McNelis says 90% of constituent representations he receives concern housing, with the remainder being about speeding, dog dirt and cycling on the Prom. As a city centre retailer, he says the local business community also raise litter, commercial rates and street begging with him regularly.
McNelis highlights a working family of five he is assisting at present as an indicator of the city’s issues. They were given six months’ notice to quit their rented home in Knocknacarra where their children attend secondary school. Both parents also work locally, but will now be moving to Oranmore to pay €2,300 per month to rent a home.
For the West ward, McNelis wants to prioritise the delivery of facilities at Kingston, and supports plans to improve facilities for Knocknacarra FC and Salthill Knocknacarra GAA.
Not all young people like sport, so McNelis wants the City Council to provide a social enterprise hub with secretarial and support services where youth groups can base themselves, and young people can spend time. “Of course teenagers hang out at bus stops, because there are feck-all places for them to go without alcohol in this city. Lack of youth facilities in Galway was a big concern for the Regional Drugs Taskforce meeting last week, and there are excellent projects in Roscommon with the ETBs we can emulate here.”
McNelis says he is opposed to proposals to amalgamate Galway’s city and county councils. “The city’s commercial rates would be swallowed up into a much bigger pot to fund urban centres from Ballinalsoe to Clifden. The simple truth is that government needs to fund all of Galway as the regional capital and stop treating us as a third-rate county.”
