Call for Council to get to the bottom of blast at City Hall

Date Published: {J}

Galway City Council has been criticised for not yet publishing a report into the cause of an explosion at City Hall – 19 days after the blast occurred.

The explosion occurred at 7.50am on Friday, June 11 and shattered at least ten windows resulting in the closure of the College Road building to the public for 11 days.

City Councillor Pádraig Conneely says it is strange that three weeks on from the blast the City Manager, Joe MacGrath, has not informed the public what caused it. Cllr Conneely has called for the Council to “immediately” publish the investigation findings.

But a spokesperson for the City Council said the Health and Safety (HSA) and Council investigations are ongoing and the local authority has no indication as to when the probes will be finalised.

Cllr Conneely says that the City Manager must put the full facts of the blast into the public domain in order to restore the public’s confidence in visiting City Hall. Nobody was injured in the explosion but Cllr Conneely says had it happened 15 minutes later it could have caused serious injury or even death to staff who would have been arriving for work.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.