County Council Cathaoirleach Liam Carroll meets An Taoiseach in Government Buildings

Galway County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Liam Carroll met with An Taoiseach and Fine Gael Party Leader, Leo Varadkar, in Government Buildings last Tuesday night (July 4^th).

The Taoiseach, along with all of his senior Ministers, met with the 13 Fine Gael Councillors who have recently been elected as the first citizen of their county.

Councillor Carroll, who was elected as Cathaoirleach in June, outlined his main priorities for his term.

“I will work with the newly appointed CEO, Liam Conneally, to impress on the Department of Housing, Local Govt and Heritage, and the Department of Public Expenditure that Galway County Council receives additional and adequate Government funding to run the affairs of the County to provide the necessary and vital services for all the citizens whom we serve.

“Another of my priorities is to ensure that adequate Social, Affordable and Private housing units are constructed to accommodate our projected growing population, starting from now.

“This is vitally necessary if we are to attract further investment in job creation. A recent survey undertaken by Galway Chamber of Commerce found that four out of five local businesses indicated that the lack of housing in the County is having a serious impact on their ability to recruit staff, rising to nine out of 10 for those companies in the tech sector.

“The Voluntary Sector plays a key role in the maintenance of many aspects of our County. Thousands of our people give of their time and expertise running Clubs, Community Development Associations, Tidy Towns Groups, Men’s and Women’s Sheds and many more. During my term of office, I intend to be an ambassador for these organisations. I hope to be in a position to visit as many of these as is possible during the next 12 months.

“I will also work with Galway County Council and Iarnród Éireann to expedite the lodging of a Planning Application and construction of a 2nd platform and 1km loop line at Oranmore Rail Station and to ensure more frequent services to and from Galway City serving the growing populations of Oranmore and Athenry.

“I also hope to expedite the delivery by Galway County Council of a Master Plan for the old Galway Airport Site which has been lying idle and virtually unused since the end of 2013.

“I intend to press for the execution and delivery of Framework Plans for Briarhill and Garraun in the Galway Eastern Metropolitan Area as agreed in the 2022-2028 County Development Plan agreed in May 2022.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “I had a good two-hour meeting with Councillor Carroll in Government Buildings last Tuesday evening to discuss the issues that matter to the people of Galway. The meeting gave Councillor Carroll the opportunity to raise these issues directly with me. I committed to Councillor Carroll to work on these issues.

“The need for more funding this year for local and regional road maintenance, a top up allocation for the Local Improvement Scheme and, in the coming years, funding to advance new road projects that are delayed, the urgent need to service much more land for housing were raised at the meeting. On energy security and climate, they impressed on me the need to increase aid to farmers, schools, community buildings and businesses to install solar panels and become energy efficient.

“I look forward to working with Councillor Carroll and visiting Galway during his term as Cathaoirleach.”

Fine Gael is making a real impact in communities through the hard work of our local representatives. With 13 Mayors/Cathaoirligh across the country Fine Gael is representing stronger, safer communities in every part of the country.