As the city council\u2019s draft budget was presented ahead of its monthly meeting, councillors voiced major concerns over cuts affecting Leisureland and some climate action projects.<\/p>\n
The facility, which includes a community pool, play areas, offices, event space and other amenities, had relied on the \u20ac307,000 allocation that is now gone. This has prompted questions about whether a back-up fund exists should an emergency arise.<\/p>\n
During the December meeting, Cllr Clodagh Higgins asked the chief executive about the current amount in the sinking fund and whether Leisureland\u2019s board was included in the decision to remove the funding. She received no response to either query.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can dress it up all you want, but it’s not prudent budgeting. It’s a real failure of responsibility,\u201d she told the Irish Independent, adding that the chief executive gave \u201cno reassurances whatsoever\u201d that the facility will remain unaffected.<\/p>\n
Cllr Higgins believes the sinking fund is currently depleted, calling the move \u201ccompletely reckless\u201d if no plan is in place. She stressed that city council funding is vital for the centre, which serves 4,000 children weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that Leisureland did need a certain percentage of that budget and then the rest went into a sinking fund,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cut is made when minimum wages are being increased, the pension auto-enrolment has been introduced, and then on top of it all, you have a pool that is an aging facility,\u201d Cllr Higgins added.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeisureland never needed this funding more than what they do need it in 2026. And my concern is that the Chief Executive didn’t actually give any confidence in the sense that it wouldn’t be impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irish Independent contacted Galway City Council, which manages Leisureland, for projections into 2026. Responses indicate the facility is operating with a \u20ac50,000 shortfall from 2025, which will divert funds intended for capital improvements. As a result, upgrades will be postponed, membership prices are likely to rise, and breaking even in 2026 appears unlikely.<\/p>\n
Concerns will be brought before the Corporate Policy Group in the New Year to examine the repercussions of the budget decisions, Cllr Higgins said, where further clarity on Leisureland\u2019s future is expected.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the city council\u2019s draft budget was presented ahead of its monthly meeting, councillors voiced major concerns over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[92213,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-201675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-emma-smith","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}