Candidate Web Site North & East Ward   Kieran Cunnane
	East of the River
Renmore..  Mervue..  Ballybane..  Ballybritt..  Doughiska..  City Centre..  Tirellan..  Menlo..  Sandy Rd..  Riverside..  Castlegar..

What type of Eyre Square can we expect if the plan goes ahead ?

With five million spent we should expect a square which is professional, neat and well designed. The square may in time achieve these attributes, but we all know we could have aimed so much higher. Local historians, Artists and Horticulturalists and Mariners, should have been consulted before any draft plan. So too should the people of Bohermore, to whom Edward Eyre passed the square. Many of the Councillors privately know that they got it wrong but are afraid to lose face by admitting this. There are fears that the new semi-mature trees planted in the square will fare very poorly like the oak eye in Terryland Forrest Park. On the heritage front, the biggest issue is the laughable idea of having a fibreglass replica of Padraic O' Conaire. Browne's doorway is to remain, as are the Galway Hooker and the fountain which are to be moved a short distance and rotated 90 degrees.

The other thing we can expect is CCTV monitoring our movements around all four corners of the square. There is a debate about which is more effective, Gardaí on the beat or CCTV cameras. Other factors include the initial and maintenance costs and the employment affects (i.e. how many extra Gardaí could we have for the cost of the system). While the data protection act governs the actual recorded data, there remains widespread concern as to whether the authorities (the Government more so than the Gardaí) can be trusted with CCTV. This concern is because the Government is becoming very right wing in its control of the public to the point where political activists are sometimes targeted by Gardaí. There's a trade-off between an invasions of our civil rights and improved crime detection and prevention.

I hope that the square turns out to be a good space for the people of Galway and that both the old and new trees will survive. Only time will truly tell whether all the concern with the plan was justified.