Full cost of Galway City Council rebrand may never be known as spending won't be separately tracked

The decision comes after calls for greater transparency over the rebrand's cost, beyond the €28,000 already reported for the project.

Campaigner Gerry Hanley previously said he intended to write to the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris (FG), seeking an estimate of the full cost.

He also wanted assurance that all spending on the transition would be tracked so a final figure could be established.

However, the council confirmed that spending on the rollout will not be independently tracked, raising questions about whether the full cost of the changeover will ever be known.

“The money has to be accounted for,” said Mr Hanley.

"The Government are constantly stating the importance of cost control in councils. You can only control cost when you record it."

In a media briefing, Director of Finance Helen Kilroy said that items such as signs, uniforms and other branded materials will be updated as part of normal replacement and upgrade programmes, rather than through a separate rebranding project.

She argued that these costs would arise regardless of the rebranding, making it difficult to separate the cost of the new logo from items that would have been purchased anyway.

Similarly, she said that departments already have budgets for replacing signs and other materials.

The council maintained that counting all such spending as a cost of the rebrand would be "misleading".

"We won't have a separate line item for rebranding," she said at the briefing.

"It will not be independently tracked. It will be done within existing operational budgets.

"If we are buying a jacket, how do I assign a cost to the branding? How do I ascertain what that cost is? We don't need to track items that are happening anyway. What element is the cost due to a change of logo?"

The aim is to keep the changeover as "cost-neutral" as possible, with the council indicating there will be no additional costs for the digital elements of the rollout.

And she said the rebrand would have no impact on next year's budget.

"It is cost-neutral in terms of digital," she said.

“We are not making any impact on next years budget with this rebrand.”

Meanwhile, the council was unable to clarify what will happen to the large ‘G’ carved outside City Hall.

It was explained that the building is earmarked for demolition, although any proposal would have to go through the Part 8 planning process and come before elected members.

"This building will be knocked, that is the plan," said Ms Kilroy.

The future of the prominent sign remains uncertain, with no indication of whether it will be removed or replaced before any proposed demolition takes place.

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