If Storm Éowyn was an unwanted guest at Galway City Council’s table, his expensive tastes have racked up a bill so far of almost €15m, and – worryingly – the tab is still open.
Only eight weeks since stark warnings from officials prompted Galway’s city councillors to raise Local Property Tax for the first time, and nudge commercial rates up, the city manager is considering an emergency revision of the entire city’s annual budget in the wake of eye-watering bills for hurricane-force damage across the city’s public assets.
“The financial costs are significant,” Galway City Council’s chief executive, Leonard Cleary, told city councillors at their first plenary meeting after the storm this week. “There’s no doubt we need national, emergency assistance.”
The City’s Director of Operations, Patrick Greene, described destruction to Galway as ‘historic’. “The clean-up is still going on, and it will for months.”
Speaking to the Advertiser after the meeting, Mr Cleary said although he is “confident” central government will assist western counties, which bore the brunt of Storm Éowyn, he is considering activating Section 104 of the Local Government Act. This emergency measure authorises officials to redirect monies previously allocated by councillors to fund core functions of the local authority.
“While we have all the correct insurances in place, there are just certain unforeseen costs we’ll have to absorb. The local authority has to be a first responder after something like a storm. The local community looks to us to fill the gap in terms of services – whatever the cost,” he said. “If we don’t have national [financial] assistance in place by March, I’ll have to look at an emergency revision of our budget.”
The monumental impact of Storm Éowyn on Galway City Council’s finances has been initially estimated at between €10m and €15m, with officials from all departments indicating six-month clean-ups may substantially expand this figure to exceed 12 per cent of this year’s €144m city budget.
There have been 387 confirmed damage incidents with Council-owned houses, with one third recorded as roof-related. Almost 1,500 council-owned trees were felled, with many more looking precarious. Almost every road in the city on a roughly north-south axis had a tree fall across it necessitating clearance. Several publicly-owned walls, fences and gates were flattened. Almost 400 street lights were knocked out, with ESB legal restrictions still in place banning council electricians to reconnect until next week.
A number of community centres were storm damaged, and City Hall itself was hit by falling trees to its rear. Two expensive Multi-Use Games Areas (MUGAs ) received extensive damage, while hardware for the Council’s communications, IT and administrative systems was put under storm-related stress.
The local authority’s finance director, Helen Kilroy, told councillors the Department of Local Government in Dublin expected her to have “high-level” cost estimates submitted within one week, but that expenses are difficult to accurately assess as the post-Éowyn clean-up is ongoing.
“My fear is that is that all types of expenditure will not be covered by the Department, therefore the burden will fall back on the city’s development budget. This will potentially impact all our plans and services,” she warned, adding that emergency budget revision may be unavoidable.
It is understood the City Council has already recorded €8m in damage to assets, but as staff and contractors have been too busy to collate receipts, purchase orders and invoices relating to emergency works, such as heavy machinery rental, this figure will rise sharply, and quickly, over coming weeks.
Galway’s unprecedented 183kmph January winds blew a massive hole in the city’s record €144m allocation for 2025, agreed by councillors based on tax hikes passed in acrimonious meetings before Christmas.
The city has no contingency fund for emergency extreme weather events, and it is expected Parks, Amenities, Urban Development, Economic Planning and Environmental Services would be the first pots to be raided to cover storm expenses.
The City Council pays around €2.5m per year in buildings insurance, and this premium is expected to soar next year after multiple storm-related claims.
City councillors were unanimous in their praise of Council staff and emergency services, with 2,800 calls in Galway dealt with in 24 hours. Councillor Alan Cheevers (FF ) suggested council staff should parade in this year’s St Patrick’s Day festival as a measure of gratitude from the city.
Experienced councillors, Mayor Peter Keane (FF ), Declan McDonnell (Ind ), and Níall McNelis (Lab ), separately voiced dismay that “hard fought” LPT and commercial rates increases may now be swallowed up in storm damage costs, while a number of councillors who voted against tax hikes before Christmas were heckled when demanding extra resources for damaged infrastructure in their areas.
Councillor Donal Lyons (Ind ) suggested the city manager band together with other local authority bosses via the County and City Management Association (CCMA ) to lobby Government for emergency funding jointly, while McDonnell suggested State climate action funding should be channelled to storm proofing and repairs.
“It’s unfair for Government to expect local authorities – already scraping the barrel – to find funds for storm repairs,” said Councillor Terry O’Flaherty (Ind ), who suggested teaming up with other councils to access shared resources. “This hurricane was a national disaster.”
