Local Authority: Galway City Council
Issue: Alleged council theft
More than five years after news first broke of an investigation into an alleged fraud involving Galway City Council's parking meters, there is still no sign of the release of a council investigation report on the matter.
In January 2017, the Galway City Tribune reported that a council official had been suspended while an investigation was being carried out into alleged irregularities in the council's Pay and Display parking meters.
Some Galway politicians were unhappy with the council, complaining that it was not forthcoming in providing information related to its investigation.
Padraig Conneely, a Galway City Councillor at the time, told a council meeting: "We are supposed to be board members of this city, and we know nothing about what’s going on."
The matter was also raised in the Seanad by Trevor Ó Clochartaigh that March. He referred to "irregularities" in the income in Galway City Council parking meters, adding that, "I have been informed that the discrepancy could be to the tune of a couple of hundred thousand euro".
Mr Ó Clochartaigh also told the Seanad that the issue had been apparently brought to the attention of senior management in Galway City Council over three years ago, but "we did not find out about it until now".
"The broader question of the level of oversight of local authorities that is in place within the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government arises in this context," he said.
"Is there is a flagging system that ensures the Minister and the Department, as the overseeing body through which the Government provides funding, are told when things like this are happening?"
When we asked the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage if it had any record of being contacted about the council’s inquiry, it confirmed that it had not.
Meanwhile, RTÉ Investigates has established that the council appointed a two-person inquiry team led by an external investigator.
Separately, gardaí began an investigation.
The council’s investigation concluded in April 2018, while an audit of the parking system was produced the following month.
We sought copies of both reports under the Freedom of Information Act, which the council refused to release, stating that this could prejudice or impair a garda investigation.
We had also sought other records relating to the investigation, but the council said we would have to pay search and retrieval fees.
For correspondence related to the investigation, the council said we would need to pay €810, while it wanted more than €2,500 for financial data downloaded from its parking meter system.
We then sought internal records explaining how it arrived at those figures, but the council said we would need to pay €380 in search and retrieval fees for this privilege.
Solicitor Fred Logue, an expert in Irish information law, told us that search and retrieval fees should be the "exception".
"For public authorities charging fees routinely," he explained, "it's probably a symptom that something's wrong, either in the way they're organised or in their approach to FOI."
An Garda Síochána has confirmed to RTÉ Investigates that its investigation remains ongoing, while Galway City Council said that it was not in a position to comment on a "live Garda investigation".
