Galway Bay fm newsroom - The estimated quarterly impact of COVID 19 on Galway city council's rates income is €7.5 million.
The figure was provided to city councillors as they resumed their meeting schedule at Leisureland this week.
The 18 councillors and officials met at the new Salthill venue for a two hour meeting due to the ongoing 2 metre social distancing guidelines.
The government has stated commercial rates for a three month period beginning at the end of March will be waived for businesses forced to close due to public health requirements.
The loss arising from the initial waived period is to be compensated to local authorities by Government with exchequer funding of €260 million assigned for the initiative.
The meeting heard the city council's income from commercial rates accounts for 38% of overall income, while 27% of income is derived from goods and services such as planning fees and parking rates.
Officials advised all discretionary spending has now been paused in a bid to protect finances.
As of mid-March, a moratorium on planned recruitment was also instructed on planned recruitment budgeted for the current year.
