This article is from page 29 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
THE Department of the Environ- ment has been accused of robbing Clare County Council of funding ring-fenced from motor-tax paid in the county.
Following the confirmation of a seven per cent cut in the council budget for next year, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that the Gov-
ernment was going back on a deal to ring-fence money collected from motor tax for use in the county.
‘This Government told us that they were ring-fencing the money from motor tax for the local authorities but now they are using this money for their own issues,” the councillor renee
“They said that this money was protected so why are they taking it
from the local authority. The level of money being paid for motor tax has not gone down so I don’t see why our funding in respect to this should be cut.”
Meanwhile, it was also revealed that Clare County Council is being forced to take out overdraft facilities to cover budget shortfalls as a result of delays in receiving payments from the Department of the Environment.