Councillors press officials to remove camp before Volvo

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Concerns that the Occupy Galway protest camp in Eyre Square should be removed before the Volvo Ocean Race grand finale next month were expressed last night when the members of Galway City Council passed their third notice of motion in relation to the issue.

Councillors said that there was an urgency attached to the issue, almost seven months after the camp was set up, after pointing out that the “eyes of the world” would be on  the city during the Volvo  festival from June 30 to July  8.

At the end of a heated debate which lasted an hour, the Councillors voted 12-3 to leave the matter in the hands of the interim City Manager, Joe O’Neill, who said he had commenced action against the encampment.

Cllr Padraig Conneely (FG) raised the issue after claiming that 25 businesses in the Eyre Square area had responded unanimously that the encampment should be removed, in a survey which he carried out at the start of this month.

“Why, after seven months, are we the only city in the world where no action has been taken?” he asked. “Why, Manager, are you not showing courage on this issue? I have been raising this issue for the past six months. This council is allowing this ‘shanty town’ to continue while rate-payers in the area are paying millions.”

He was backed by Cllr Ollie Crowe (FF), who said it was “totally unacceptable” that a public space could be “occupied by an element in Eyre Square” for such a long time.

“We should have ‘gone’ on the same day as Dublin and Waterford,” said Cllr Crowe. “We are 45 days away from the Volvo now. What I want now is action and for our city to look as good as it can on the first week in July.”

Cllr Frank Fahy (FG) said he could not understand why the Gardai had not moved the encampment on, as they had done in other cities.“If the traveller community had moved into Eyre Square six months ago I can guarantee they would have been removed by now,” said Cllr Donal Lyons (Ind). “This is the last ‘occupation’ in the country as far as I know.”

Mr O’Neill said that the process of removing the camp was in train and he did not wish to say more in a public forum at this stage.“I am doing what I can and what I have to do,” he said. “I am not going to be discussing this issue in front of the public. I am not going to answer your questions here.”

Cllr Conneely had some heated exchanges with Cllr Catherine Connolly (Ind), who claimed he was using council time to “move principled people from Eyre Square” at a time when the local authority had more urgent business to deal with.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.