John McDonagh, Labour Party candidate for the Galway City Central Ward, is demanding to know who is responsible for removing derelict boats abandoned along the approaches to Nimmo’s Pier.
The local election candidate says Galway City Council, the Office of Public Works and the Corrib Navigation Trust have all failed to remove a number of hulks littering the foreshore. This area is regularly photographed by tourists looking across at The Long Walk, and was immortalised in a famous Christmas Guinness advert.
“It is unacceptable that these organisations point the finger elsewhere instead of dealing urgently with this ongoing hazard,” says McDonagh. “These three organisation need to work together to find a solution. The people of Claddagh surely deserve a solution to this ongoing eyesore on their doorstep.”
The Shantalla native says the wrecks are a health and environmental hazard, and need to be removed. Children regularly climb the unsafe ship wrecks, they are magnets for anti-social behaviour, and are possible nesting sites for city centre vermin.
“If someone injured themselves on one of these old boats, we wouldn’t be long hearing who is responsible,” says McDonagh, who is attempting to reclaim the city centre seat once held by Labour by postmaster Billy Cameron.
McDonagh wants a regime to be introduced similar to Inland Waterway’s system of placing notices on abandoned boats on the River Shannon. If owners don’t remove hulks, they may be destroyed.
