Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Galway City Council is to seek a Government resolution to end payments to the County Council which it has been making since the city boundary was extended in the 1980s.
At this month's City Council meeting, Councillor John Connolly raised the matter as part of a discussion on the Council’s 2020 annual financial statement.
Councillor Connolly asked the executive committee how much the city is paying the county for the boundary extension which was altered in 1985.
The City Manager Brendan McGrath told the meeting, the city pays the county approximately €1 million annually to compensate for lost revenue and that the fee is divided up through three shared services.
They consist of a veterinary service which costs about €100,000 a year, the shared city and county fire service which costs over €5 million annually and the city and county library service which costs up to €1.9 million a year.
The City Manager was keen to stress that the residents in the city only pay for the city fire and library services however.
Mr McGrath added that any proposal to stop paying the annual levy for the boundary extension would have to be sanctioned by Government.
A proposal was made by Independent Councillor Donal Lyons to seek a resolution from the Minister for Local Government to end the payments to the County Council and it was supported unanimously by all Councillors present at the meeting.
Councillor Lyons says the City has been compensating the county for close to forty years and the funds are needed for city services.
