{"id":364874,"date":"2026-03-25T19:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364874\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:34:09","slug":"e800-airport-transfer-for-galway-mayors-morocco-trip-prompts-policy-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364874\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20ac800 airport transfer for Galway mayor\u2019s Morocco trip prompts policy changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mayor Councillor Mike Cubbard\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e8bf4660-a1bb-44ab-9b9d-4abb97a1e408.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Mayor Councillor Mike Cubbard<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Galway City Council has committed to changing their standard of practice for airport transfers after the mayor\u2019s visit to Morocco in January costed the local authority \u20ac800 in airport transfers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">A report from Galway City Council shows that an external chauffer service was hired by administrative staff costing \u20ac400 each way to Dublin airport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">In a statement, the local authority said Mayor Mike Cubbard was not involved in the booking or aware of the cost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">At this time, a review of the over expenditure is in process according to a Galway City Council spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Public transport will now be a default method of travel to airports and chauffer services will only be used in \u201cexceptional circumstances,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Furthermore, the report shows additional expenses for the council during the trip, such as accommodation, which was booked by Moroccan officials with safety considerations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Two cash tips \u201cdeclared in good faith\u201d and \u201cin accordance with local custom\u201d were given by Mayor Cubbard to concierge servicers and one driver. Receipts are not normally available for gratuity exchanges, and the local authority is not seeking reimbursement for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Additionally, a chauffeured car was made available for the trip at the expense of the Moroccan Embassy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">As a cultural representative, the exchange of relevant gifts is best practice. Mayor Cubbard brought items highlighting local artists and the Irish language including Connemara Blue glassware and Galway-based socks from Irish Socksciety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The value of the gifts was reported to be approximately \u20ac355 combined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">During the trip, Mayor Cubbard and an accompanying executive officer met with the Acting Mayor of Agadir, Mostafa Bouderka, and attended a number of engagements with tourism and chamber of commerce organisations in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Galway City Council chose to travel to Morocco as a tourism and culture hub in the West, as the European Union remains its leading trade partner and largest foreign investor. An invitation was extended by the Moroccan Embassy in Ireland and the Souss Massa Regional President to further international relations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Councillor Mike Cubbard Galway City Council has committed to changing their standard of practice for airport transfers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92213,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-364874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-emma-smith","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364874","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=364874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}