From this week’s Galway City Tribune – The planned transfer of Galway City Council staff from College Road to the new City Hall at Crown Square in Mervue is at least a year behind schedule, it has emerged.

And councillors were told on Monday that the purchase of the building shell – at €44.39m – was €1.1m less than the loan that had been drawn down.

But the total capital outlay of the relocation, which was estimated last year to be €56.5m, remains a mystery at this stage because the final fit-out costs, which involve a separate design contract, are not yet known.

At a meeting this week, management of the Council attempted to draw a line under the ‘purchase’ phase of deal that has sparked controversy, and move on to the ‘relocation‘ phase of the project, but officials were lambasted by councillors for buying 100 more car parking spaces than they had been given approval for. This deal was revealed by the Galway City Tribune last March.

It is twelve months since councillors agreed a loan application to buy the new building, and six months since the sale was finalised, but management were unable or unwilling at Monday’s meeting to say when staff would be in situ at the new office block at Monivea Road.

According to a report to the July 2022 Council meeting, where the €45.5m loan was approved by councillors, staff were to be “in situ” in the new offices by the end of 2023.

But the Council’s newly-appointed ‘change management co-ordinator for the Crown Square development’, Theresa Hughes Lannon, confirmed that the fit-out “design team” would not be appointed until quarter three of this year, meaning that deadline will be missed.

This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article and for further coverage on Crown Square costs and the cost of hiring hotels for Council meetings see the July 14 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.