Galway City Council’s hotel meetings continue despite lifting of Covid restrictions
Published:
-
-
Author: Dara Bradley
~ 2 minutes read
From this week's Galway City Tribune
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
The Department of Health removed the requirement to wear facemasks in hospital settings from last week.
If you have respiratory symptoms, it remains advisable to wear a mask. And health professionals treating patients with Covid-19 are also advised to mask-up.
But the removal of the mandate for patients, staff and visitors to wear a face covering in health settings signalled the end of the last remaining restrictions introduced to curb Covid.
It came into effect from April 19, and is the last restriction to be removed after three years of Covid-19.
Except here in Galway. Galway City Council, in its wisdom, continues to impose restrictions by holding its meetings outside of the Chamber at City Hall.
Galway county councillors have long since returned to County Hall; elected representatives on the HSE West Regional Health Forum have long since returned to their meeting room at Merlin Park Hospital.
But city councillors have not returned to City Hall. Instead, they continue to hold their ordinary monthly meetings in hotels, at a cost to taxpayers and ratepayers. The Council chamber was fine pre-Covid, and accommodated 18 councillors, media, members of the public, invited guests and Council management without any issue.
Now that Covid restrictions have ended, and local authorities have returned to their meeting rooms across the country, why is it that the City Council is holding out and meeting in hotels?
And even if there is a good reason not to use City Hall – we’ve yet to hear it – the City Council owns several public buildings including Leisureland, and various community centres, that would be more than capable of hosting its monthly meetings.
The policy of hybrid meetings, allowing remote attendance, was one of the positive developments that came out of Covid and should be retained.
But surely now is the time the Council got back to holding all of its meetings at City Hall in the purpose built chamber, which underwent an expensive revamp some years ago.
This is a shortened preview version of this column. For more Bradley Bytes, see the April 28 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.
More like this:
Fundraising presentation cut short after Aran RNLI crew gets call for MediVac
It started out as a day of celebration for the volunteer crew of the Aran Islands lifeboat – acce...
Mountbellew fundraiser is critical to help stave off vulture fund calling in massive debt
The future of a rural Galway golf club – founded almost a century ago – is under real threat as m...
Cast and crew gather again to mark 50th anniversary screening of seminal movie
The movie itself is regarded as seminal to the development of Irish language film-making – but 50...
Taoiseach pledges to examine "poor" LEADER funding in East Galway
This article first appeared on Galway Bay FMThe Taoiseach has pledged to examine alleged "poor" a...
Bishop Eamonn Casey’s remains moved from Galway Cathedral Crypt
This article first appeared on Galway Bay FMBishop Eamonn Casey’s remains have been moved from Ga...
BREAKING: Bishop Casey’s remains removed from Cathedral
The remains of Bishop Eamonn Casey have been removed from Galway Cathedral and ‘entrusted to the ...
Award-winning restaurateur JP McMahon opens new venue focused on Japanese street food
Multi-award-winning restaurateur JP McMahon unveiled his latest endeavour at the weekend – the ne...
Time to put rail corridor firmly back on track
A backbench TD has demanded that the Government provides a timeframe for work to commence on reop...
Hundreds of all ages turn out to enjoy National Play Day in Tuam’s Palace Grounds
Families from across Galway gathered to mark National Play Day recently – and to celebrate this y...