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Council Slashes Spending By €4.2 Million

Thursday, 22 December 2011

Services Will Be Hit!

OFFALY County County will slash its budget by €4.2 million next year in a bid to balance its books.
The massive cutbacks will see spending on roads, housing maintenance, libraries, tourism promotion, heritage projects, arts, overtime and travelling expenses and a host of other areas go down.
The budget is also being balanced by deferring until 2013 a deficit which has grown to €4 million.
Total spending in 2012 will be €58.1 million, which is 13 percent less than the €66.6 million budget in 2008, when the axe first began to fall.
Income from commercial rates is anticipated to be €7.8 million and for the fourth year in a row, rates have been frozen.
Funding to the Offaly local authority from the Government, which forms about one quarter of the council's income each year, has declined substantially for each of the last five years, from €17.2 million in 2008 to €14.1 million in 2011.
The Department of Environment has cut its allocation to Offaly by another €1 million for 2012.
Pat Gallagher, Offaly county manager, told Monday's annual budget meeting of the council that it faced increased financial costs of €3.2 million next year, and the €1 million reduction in Government funding resulted in €4.2 million worth of cuts being needed.
Under Ireland's EU/IMF deal, Offaly County Council is obliged to provided the Department of the Environment with a financial report every three months.
Mr Gallagher said the council has been reducing its staff continuously since 2008 - by an equivalent of 125 full-time workers - bringing numbers on the payroll down from 538 to 413.
He said that every effort has been made to 'maintain service levels' with fewer staff. 'However, the budgetary situation has required us to reconfigure services and delivery them differently,' said the manager.
'This will continue in 2012, when service levels in many areas will unavoidably be affected by reduced human and financial resources,' he said.
Because so many staff have retired, the council has had to increase its budget for pensions.
The council's pension costs in 2012 will be €2.5 million, an increase of €164,000 on 2011.
And because the council has fewer full-time staff, pension deductions are falling, which means that the 2012 pension budget has a net charge of €336,000.
Mr Gallagher also noted that recommendations from the Government's Local Government Efficiency Review Group were issued in July, 2010.
Among the proposals were the elimination of the 'off the road' declaration for avoiding car tax, increasing planning fees, and the introduction of domestic water charges and a property levy.
Mr Gallagher said local government would have to be adequately funded if it is to comply with statutory obligations.
'To date the only implementation from the above is the levying of the "Household Charge" which is scheduled for 2012. The remaining proposals should be implemented quickly and any additional revenue raised as a result made available to local authorities,' said Mr Gallagher.
Documentation distributed at Monday's meeting also revealed that a principal officer in the Department of the Environment, Colm Lavery, described by €100 household charge as 'modest'.
In a letter to all local authorities, Mr Lavery said: 'The household charge is being set at a modest amount of €100 for 2012 and provision will be made for the payment of the charge by instalments.'
'The legislation to underpin the household charge will contain the precise details of the charge and will be published and brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas shortly,' said Mr Lavery.
The draft budget put before councillors on Monday by council management proposed cutting spending on housing maintenance by €157,000, housing adaptation for the disabled by €100,000, county roads by €332,794, arts by €96,000, libraries by €51,000, and fire service pay by nearly €43,000.
The Fianna Fail group, headed by Cllr Eamonn Dooley, and the Fine Gael group, whose leader is Cllr Tommy McKeigue, opposed the cuts in spending on disabled persons' dwellings and on county roads.
Cllr Dooley put forward a package of other cuts which would free up €100,000 for disabled persons and €75,000 for county roads.
A second proposal was made by Cllr Dervill Dolan, an Independent councillor. He tabled a package of cuts worth €202,500 and suggested that €100,000 of that be put towards the budget for disabled persons' dwellings, €50,000 towards county roads, €36,500 towards housing repairs and maintenance, and €16,000 for swimming pools.
Both Cllr Dooley's and Cllr Dolan's proposals sought cuts in councillors' expenses and allowances.
Cllr Dooley proposed that councillors' expenses be cut by 20 percent and that the budget for conferences abroad be halved to €2,884. This would save over €21,000 next year.
Cllr Dolan's proposal went much further. He suggested cutting the chairman's allowance in half, by €13,500, lowering councillors' expenses by a third, €31,000, and cutting the expenses for chairs of the council's Strategic Policy Committees by 50 percent, saving €14,000. He also proposed cutting the budget for conferences abroad by 70 percent.
Both Cllr Dooley's and Cllr Dolan's proposal were in agreement in a number of areas, including the fire service, cutting payments to planning consultants, and increasing income from landfill operations.
A vote was taken on Cllr Dooley's proposal first and with the support of the Fine Gael members, and Cllr John Leahy, Independent, it was passed comfortably by 16 votes to 4. Cllr Dolan was supported by three other Independents, Cllr Johnny Butterfield, Cllr John Carroll and Cllr John Foley.
Another Independent, Cllr Tony McLoughlin, who indicated he was in favour of the budget drafted by council management, abstained.
Even with the changes made as a result of Cllr Dooley's proposal, the budget available for work on county roads will be cut by €257,794.

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