Councillors vote against extra funding for Galway 2020

Galway city councillors have voted against giving an extra €2.5 million in funding to the Galway 2020 European capital of culture project.

A total of 11 councillors from a number of parties backed a motion not to give the extra funding after a two-hour debate on Monday evening. The extra monies had been sought for a number of “city specific” projects, including an international installation highlighting the migrant crisis by leading Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei.

It was the second attempt by city manager Brendan McGrath to make a case for advancing sums of €1.25 million from the 2021 and 2022 city budgets. Mr McGrath said a “full” and “exciting” 2020 programme would still go ahead, as there was still a total budget of €39.15 million.

Galway city council had already committed €6 million and Galway County Council €4 million, while €15 million is coming from the Department of Culture. The project has failed to generate a targeted private sponsorship of €7 million.

Fianna Fáil councillor Peter Keane, who had been critical of the lack of detail provided to councillors at a special meeting on the issue late last month, said there should be no more money for the project, and “enough was enough”.

Green Party councillor Pauline O’Reilly was also unhappy that no list of specific projects had been provided.

A city manager’s report for last month’s special meeting included a number of projects already in the programme published last September.

Galway 2020 chief executive Patricia Philbin said there were no figures yet in relation to the cost of the open air opening ceremony, which had to be cancelled due to Storm Ciara at the weekend.

Several councillors questioned the decision to select South Park in the Claddagh - known locally as “the Swamp” as it is on reclaimed land prone to spot flooding, even in summer.

Mr McGrath said that if the event had been planned for any location in Galway, it would still have had to be cancelled on public health and safety grounds due to the orange weather warning.

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan formally handed over the European capital of culture to Mayor Cubbard at an indoor event on Saturday.

Bellringers wearing bulls' heads from the Croatian city of Rijeka, which is sharing the title with Galway, performed at the handover ceremony in the Galmont Hotel.

Galway 2020 chief executive Patricia Philbin said that the project was " disappointed" by the outcome of the city council meeting "but, as this weekend has proved, Galway 2020 is a very resilient project".