From this week’s Galway City Tribune: Large-scale events set to take place as part of Galway 2020 could be under threat due to difficulties securing insurance.

Such is the urgency of the issue that the Government has established a cross-departmental committee to compile a report on its potential impact.

Green Party councillor Pauline O’Reilly said spiralling costs, coupled with significant changes to the insurance market due to Brexit, means local community and voluntary groups face the prospect of pulling events because of a lack of protection against public liability.

“I believe it is a concern for Galway 2020 and for the City Council,” said Cllr O’Reilly.

“I know lots of groups who perform and do classes with children that are unable to get insured. And there’s also an issue with Brexit; lots of these groups had insurance with UK insurance companies which are no longer operating in the Irish market.”

One group in Galway could still get cover from the UK-based company they were insured with, but the cost had trebled, added Cllr O’Reilly.

City Council Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, said this issue was not unique to 2020, but had come about because of insurance providers withdrawing from the market.

“It has been highlighted at the highest possible level and has the potential to impact events across the country,” said Mr McGrath.

The Council had been in contact with Irish Public Bodies (IPB) insurance which provides public liability and buildings cover to local authorities to discuss the problem, he added.

Cllr O’Reilly said while it was a national problem, it was more significant for Galway due to the sheer number of public events due to be run by community and voluntary groups in 2020.