Galway City Council officials are still refusing to comment on claims that “irregularities” with Pay and Display parking meters could have cost the local authority up to €1 million.
The matter was raised by Cllr Padraig Conneely at a Council meeting, who said that, yet again, he had to read the Galway City Tribune to find out what was going on within the local authority.
He asked if a story in this newspaper in March – relating to the suspension of a City Council employee pending an investigation into the “irregularities” – was correct or if it was “fake news”.
“This is very serious, if this Council is set to lose between €800,000 and €1million due to irregularities. Can you confirm or deny . . . or is this story just fake news?” Cllr Conneely asked officials.
Edel McCormack, Director of Finance, who was at the time presenting the annual financial statement to the meeting, said she couldn’t comment on the matter as it is currently under investigation.
Cllr Conneely said he and ordinary people in the city were dying to know what was going on and he believed, as elected members of the Local Authority, the councillors should have been informed instead of reading about it in the Galway City Tribune.
“We are supposed to be board members of this city and we know nothing about what’s going on. There have been a lot of investigations carried out in here over the years and we never found out the outcome. I would like to know,” he added.
But despite his robust questions to the executives, they refused to comment on the matter.
Following a report in this newspaper last January in relation to the alleged “irregularities”, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh raised the matter in the Seanad.
He also claimed there were other serious allegations made in realtion to the misappropriation of property belonging to the Council.
Last January, the Council confirmed to this newspaper that an investigation is being conducted and an employee is on leave pending the outcome of the probe, but has refused to answer questions in relation to the allegations.
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