Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Well done to hard-working brave Galway City Council staff who protested at City Hall this week against the ill-thought-out decision to move offices.

Members of trade union Fórsa gathered outside their place of work on Monday, to highlight their opposition to plans to relocate the Council’s headquarters from College Road to Crown Square in Mervue.

Nearly three years on, it remains unclear why Galway City Councillors on the last Council accepted the recommendation of the then Chief Executive Brendan McGrath and voted to borrow €45.5 million to buy the building shell off developer JJ Rhatigan.

We know McGrath met with each councillor, some individually, in the week before the vote but we don’t know what was said, because according to responses to Freedom of Information requests to this newspaper, no minutes exist.

We also know that Councillors only received a written report with a recommendation to approve a loan from the Housing Finance Agency, on the Friday before that Monday meeting in July 2022.

That means they had just three days to mull over a report that committed the local authority – and its ratepayers and property taxpayers – to annual loan repayment costs of €1.6m over 40 years.

At the time, councillors were told that when fit-out costs were included, the project would cost €56m.

That estimate now appears conservative and could increase to €70m by the time it’s kitted out.

Even if you think it was the best option and that Crown Square was a necessary move because College Road was too small and not energy efficient, you can’t argue that Council management used the correct process.

This point appears to be lost on the current executive, who issued a tone-deaf statement this week in response to the staff revolt, in which they doubled down on the proposal to move to Mervue and retrospectively tried to justify it.

Before committing to a €45.5m loan to solve a problem that nobody knew existed prior to July 2022, the Council never invited public expressions of interest to ascertain what other properties or land were available in Galway that could’ve been suitable for a new, consolidated headquarters. That was wrong. And yet they have never explained why, or acknowledged the error.

Council staff jump through public procurement and tendering hoops if they want to buy a box of paper clips, but with a straight face, management has suggested that it was okay to proceed with a €56 million project, without inviting expressions of interest to check out other options.

The Council never consulted the public or its staff before it pushed ahead with this plan; there was no cost-benefit analysis. That was a mistake, too.

Some brave councillors admitted they were wrong to vote for it; former Councillor Imelda Byrne claimed she was “hoodwinked”, and Councillor Alan Cheevers, her Fianna Fáil colleague, ranked it as his greatest regret.

The Council this week revealed the move will not happen until Autumn 2026 – almost three years after the December 2023 deadline, but its statement did not explain the delay.

It’s hard to argue with Fórsa official Pádraig Mulligan, who said: “Galway City Council has made a very serious error of judgement by pushing ahead with a move that nobody wants.”

Pictured: Assistant General Secretary of Fórsa, Padraig Mulligan, with Deputy Catherine Connolly at the protest on Monday against the City Council’s move to Crown Square. PHOTO: BRIAN HARDING.