New Tuam Co Council building being emptied, jobs moving to Galway, says councillor

By TONY GALVIN CENTRALISING Co Council staff at County Hall in Galway is a step backwards and has left the council's own new area headquarters in Tuam half-empty and underutilised. This is the argument being put forward by Tuam Area Cllr Shaun Cunniffe who is highlighting the policy of taking staff out of Tuam and other towns, arguing that it distances the services from the people they were set up to serve.[private] He is challenging what he says is a new initiative adopted by Galway Co Council, which sees liaison officers, social workers and some housing staff, previously located across the county, being re-located to County Hall in Galway. â€Ëœ'On the face of it, taking staff from Tuam who dealt locally with housing issues seems ill-conceived as the service they provide will now be more remote from the public in the area, diluting the efficiency of the whole Housing Service and causing considerable difficulty for those needing to access Social Housing services,' he said. He goes on to argue that on a strategic level, taking staff away from the local areas where services are delivered is a flawed approach. 'We are continuously berating the IDA for not producing regional jobs for Tuam and we find that our own council is happy to further empty an already woefully under utilised state-of-the-art council building in Tuam Town. 'Galway County Council really need to get serious about how Tuam is treated, it is the main county town in Galway and it is unbelievable that jobs would be moved from Tuam to Galway.' Cllr Cunniffe has raised the matter with senior council management and has sought an explanation from them on the matter as there has not been any consultation with councillors. Total dissatisfaction 'I told them of my total dissatisfaction with the housing service that the Tuam Area was receiving as high numbers of houses are lying idle and people were dismayed at the inaction of the council. He has also pointed out that many people who have applied for an elderly persons grant or a disabled persons grant to have some essential renovations carried out on their property are just not being visited by an engineer to assess their application and this is causing huge problems and hardship. Co Council officials have confirmed that reorganisation is going ahead at Tuam's new council offices. Cllr Cunniffe feels it imperative that the staff across the different areas of housing should work and communicate more closely together and he is sure that this would yield great benefits. Senior officials have agreed that the service was well below par for the last few months but say this was due to a lot of internal reorganisation which is now finished and services will now improve greatly. Cllr Cunniffe was informed that the Co Council has now in place a network of over 30 contractors across the county, which will vastly reduce the number of vacant properties as they are brought up to letting standard. He has called on the council to fully utilise their Tuam headquarters and to suspend any further centralisation of jobs to Galway.[/private]