The Mayor of Galway expects Galway City Council meetings to return to the purpose-built chamber in City Hall for the October meeting.

Councillor Eddie Hoare (FG) said today’s meeting, the first after the summer recess, will be held at the Galmont Hotel but he expects the chamber to be back in use for Council meetings by October.

This comes after a 73-page report into the existing ventilation system commissioned by the City Council was presented to councillors at a procedures meeting this week.

“It looks like €800 or €900 is the cost involved in terms of upgrading the ventilation system that will give sufficient air quality to allow us back in. On that basis, I’d be expecting it will be in the Galmont next Monday but hopefully thereafter we will move back into the chamber which is great news,” said Mayor Eddie Hoare.

Cllr Hoare was one of the elected members who had called for a return to the Council chamber at College Road.

A full Council meeting has not been held in the chamber since February 2020. In the intervening years, meetings have been held in hotels, Leisureland and the city’s two universities.

It emerged at the ordinary July meeting held in the Galmont Hotel that over €180,000 was spent on City Council meetings held outside of City Hall since Covid-19.

In 2020, the cost of meetings was €30,668; it was €45,738 in 2021; €77,334 in 2022; and some €22,632 in the first five months of 2023.

The costs included €155,698 on “audio visual” technology to facilitate online Zoom meetings and hybrid meetings at Leisureland and various private hotels in 2020-2023. The costs also include room hire and refreshments.

The Council report said the total cost of host meetings, from 2018-2023 was €187,112. This, according to the report, worked out at €1,816 on average per meeting, of which there were 103 during that period.

Cllr Hoare said the comprehensive report about ventilation at City Hall paves the way for a return to the chamber in October following works that will cost under €1,000.

“This is something I and other councillors have been looking for and I think it will be welcomed,” he added.