After months of debate in the council chamber, it has emerged that four Galway City councillors did have clamps removed from their vehicles without paying the appropriate fee.

Cllr Daniel Callanan began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the removal of clamps earlier this year after being informed that fellow councillors Tom Costello, John Mulholland, Catherine Connolly and current Mayor Padraig Conneely had not paid fines for parking illegally.

Despite numerous requests to Director of Service, Transport and Infrastructure Ciaran Hayes for information, Cllr Callanan maintains that the council were being "economical with the truth" and pressed forward to contact the Local Authority Ombudsman and lodge a Freedom of Information request.

Speaking to the Galway Independent yesterday, Cllr Callanan said he had finally received a comprehensive report from Galway City Council through the FOI request, which confirmed that the four councillors had clamps removed at various parts of the city without paying a fine.

According to the report, Former Mayor Tom Costello was released without paying a fine after being clamped for parking in a disabled bay at the Cathedral carpark in March.

Current Mayor Padraig Conneely was released free of charge in March after being clamped on Forster Street, as "he was only there for a short time while leaving a message at the Connaught Tribune".

Cllr Mulholland was also released without charge in 2005 and again in April of this year. The reason given for the removal was that he was on walkabout with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Independent Cllr Catherine Connolly was also had her clamp removed for free in May 2007, during general election time.

Following the release of the information, Cllr Callanan said he was happy to put a close to the debate but angered that so much time was wasted by city official in covering up the records.

"I cannot understand why the director found it impossible to forward me a copy of this detailed response sent to Ciaran Hayes in 9 July, which could have saved a huge amount of difficulty for the council. I would like to place on record my extreme disquiet as to the drip feed of information I am getting in relation to these matters. To put it mildly, I would suggest that some of the correspondence I am getting is being economical with the truth to say the least.

"I am very concerned by the information shown by this report, in particular Joe Tansey's decision to release Cllr Costello's vehicle, which was parked in a disabled parking space. How this decision comes within the terms of 'exceptional mitigating circumstance, medical or other emergency' is stretching the definition of the word in the English language beyond breaking point."

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