Galway 2020 Chair asks councillors to discuss €2.5m ‘bailout’ again
From this week's Galway City Tribune - Galway 2020 has sought to secure more public money from Galway City Council – it wants to meet elected members individually next week to discuss finances and programming.
City councillors earlier this year voted to reject a proposal to give an extra €2.5m cash injection to the company set up to deliver the European Capital of Culture. But Galway 2020 has now written to 18 city councillors about that decision – and has requested individual meetings with each elected member or party grouping, next week.
Arthur Lappin, Chairman of the Board of Galway 2020, and the company’s CEO, Patricia Philbin, want to meet with councillors to discuss the ‘likely consequences’ of councillors’ majority vote to reject the €2.5m funding request.
Green Party Councillor Pauline O’Reilly told Galway City Tribune this week that Galway 2020’s approaches to councillors was “inappropriate”.
Mr Lappin wrote to all city councillors this week, explaining that the Board of Galway 2020 had “carefully considered the decision of Galway City Council not to fund additional programmes in the city and the likely consequences of this decision.”
His email added: “The Board has asked that our CEO, Patricia Philbin, and I would seek to meet councillors to discuss our assessment of the Council’s decision prior to the making and communication of our responses to the various promoters of the additional programmes. Both Patricia and I would be available to meet with you individually, or with your party group, as appropriate.” This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here.