By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta

Over 70% of city householders have now paid the household charge – but the shortfall will still ead to some cuts being made in public services.

One of the services at risk is the Christmas Park and Ride facility, though this and other cuts are still under consideration by the executives of Galway City Council.

A spokesman for the City Council said yesterday they were “currently examining where cuts could be and would be made” due to the shortfall of funding as a result of the household charge defaulters.

However, the spokesman did stress that Galway City had the second highest percentage of households registered for the household charge.

To date, 18,908 households out of the 27,086 in the city have paid the €100 household charge which represents just over 70%.

“We are very happy to have collected that much of the household charge in the city but it is unfair on the majority for the rest of them not to pay it.

“We will be vigorously pursuing those who have not yet registered or paid the household charge.

“We are currently examining where cuts could be and would be made but obviously we will be bringing these proposals back to councillors before implementing them,” said the spokesman.

He ruled out newspaper speculation that areas which would suffer financial cuts would be Traveller accommodation, water quality management, maintenance of burial grounds and councillor expenses and allowances.

He said no hard and fast decisions had been made yet but he did say that lack of funding – local authorities are to be penalised depending on how much of the household charges are outstanding – would definitely affect services such as public parks, lighting and beach maintenance, to name but a few.

The cuts will be applied to the last quarter of the year, which could hit the Christmas Park and Ride facility, said the spokesman.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel