Galway County Council will receive an emergency injection of €1 million capital from the government to cover a funding crisis.
The announcement was made after talks yesterday between Galway County Council officials, the elected members, and Minister for Local Government John Paul Phelan which took place at county hall yesterday.
Minister Phelan admitted at the meeting that Galway County Council has been historically underfunded, which has had a serious impact on services.
On top of the announcement that €1 million to tackle the immediate funding shortage, the Minister said that changes coming to the Local Property Tax system would benefit Galway.
“The crisis has been unacceptable and action was needed without delay,” said Galway East TD Seán Canney, who described the funding model for the county as “broken”.
“Geographically we have the second biggest county in the country but we have the fourth lowest funding per head of population.”
“The County Council has been starved of resources and has struggled to maintain essential services. ”
Deputy Canney welcomed Minister Phelan’s announcement, saying that is an important step in resolving the financial issues which have dogged the county in recent years.
Councillor Joe Byrne said that this is “Great news in so far as it’s helps balance our budget, but the people of Galway must see the benefit of this funding in 2020 in how the Council provide better basic services.”
“Going forward the long term goal must be to provide more funding to make us comparative with other similar counties, but a good day.”
Deputy Ciaran Cannon also welcomed the decision by Minster Phelan, and added that the Minister is “committing to redesigning our funding scheme for all local authorities to ensure that Co. Galway receives a fair share from now on.”
