Galway racecourse management has insisted that the recent poor weather will not disrupt next week's summer festival opening at Ballybrit, in spite of almost double the average rainfall for this time of year.
Also, Galway City Council has said that there is "no issue" relating to its staff being able to take time off during race week.
A spokeswoman for the racecourse told The Irish Times yesterday that it was "aware of speculation" in relation to the state of the track after bouts of very heavy rain this week.
However, the festival still planned to start its seven-day programme on Monday evening, the spokeswoman said, although the final decision would be taken by racecourse manager John Moloney.
Met Éireann's closest rainfall measuring station to Ballybrit is over the border in Claremorris, south Mayo, and it has recorded 170 per cent of normal rainfall for the first three weeks of July.
Earlier this week, the going was "soft", but the forecast is for a drier weekend, with sunshine and showers on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Galway City Council has said that there is "no issue" with its staff being able to take their traditional race festival leave days next week. This year, council offices will not close early, but will keep normal hours, a spokeswoman said.
However, staff can take their 1½-2 days of leave at any stage during the week under flexible arrangements, she said.
The Impact trade union, representing over 60 per cent of city council staff, said that consultation must take place before work changes were introduced and this had not happened.
The local authority disputed this yesterday, stating that it was incorporated in the Towards 2016 partnership arrangements.
Three years ago, Galway County Council was criticised by the Ombudsman for failing to accept a planning objection which an individual had attempted to lodge during Galway race week in 2003.
The local authority offices had closed at 11am on the day in question and the Ombudsman pointed out that the complainant lost out on his statutory opportunity of appealing to An Bord Pleanála.
The county council has agreed to review its procedures for race week, including placing advertisements to the effect that a post box would be provided beside the main entrance to county hall.
