Galway County Council must recruit more staff in order to carry out essential works immediately.
A lot of staff in Galway County Council have retired and have not been replaced over the years. That was due to embargos and other reasons. But there seems to be a very low number of drivers in the yard for Galway County Council at the moment. I am of the strong opinion that the County Manager must now give the go ahead to take on the required number of people, not alone drivers, to carry out works that need to be done around the county. Area engineers tell me that they have not got the people to do general basic maintenance work especially at this time of the year.
More and more of the Council’s work is being subbed out but we still need a certain number of workers to carry out vital work around the county and at the moment there are simply not enough drivers and other staff there. I know that there are proposals on the table in relation to recruitment and a decision must be made now.The rises in pay that have been agreed and that must be paid for out of the council budget must not be used as an excuse not to recruit additional staff and I think that’s what’s happening at the moment which is an unsatisfactory situation.