A FORMER Galway mayor has called for a full inquiry by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee into how the final bill for the city’s Eyre Square redevelopment could reach €15 million.
Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely said an investigation was imperative, given fears that a current bus lane construction project costing €10 million would also exceed its budget.
The new bus lane on Galway’s west side has caused severe traffic disruption and will not be finished before February. No bus company has as yet committed to using it.
The original Eyre Square refurbishment budget was €6.3 million in 2004. However, the project received a major setback when the contractor, Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd, quit the site on June 27th, 2005, some 17 months after it had started. Three weeks before, on June 4th, 2005, the city council had withdrawn all sums paid to the company under an acceleration agreement.
The redevelopment was eventually completed by a new contractor, but at a cost to businesses because of huge traffic disruption during the protracted construction.
Mr Conneely claims that the significant additional spend could have been avoided if the city council had paid €600,000, which the contractor said he was owed for work done back in 2005.
“Instead, the city council went the legal route, which involved conciliation, arbitration, a High Court hearing, a Supreme Court challenge and appointment of a new arbitrator,” he said.
A new attempt at conciliation this year failed, but the contractor’s legal representatives informed the city council that it would attempt settlement through mediation. This took place over two days last month, and resulted in terms which include striking out claims and counterclaims, and an agreement by the city council to release the bond of €1 million paid by the contractor as a guarantee.
Legal fees have not yet been made public, but Mr Conneely claims that one firm has been paid almost €1.6 million for its involvement. The local authority could not confirm this yesterday.
Mr Conneely said he was “incensed” that the €1 million bond, lodged by the first contractor, would not be drawn down by the local authority, and said he had been “totally vindicated” in his “outspoken criticism” of city officials over their handling of the project.
He said he feared a “further debacle” with the €10 million bus lane project on the west side. The original completion date for this was October, but this was pushed back to December. It now looks as if it will run until at least February, the city council has acknowledged.
The city council had to pay €70,000 as a settlement for encroaching on land it did not own during the construction. Mr Conneely believes the bill could overrun by up to €1 million.
The city council says it is talking to both Bus Éireann and a private bus operator, and also the National Transport Authority, about using the route.
It points out that Galway has “one of the most successful urban bus lanes” in the State – the Bus Éireann number 9 route between the city and Doughuisce, through Renmore, which carried one million travellers last year.