This article is from page 25 of the 2011-12-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
CLARE County Council’s share of the Local Government Fund provided to by the Department of the Environment has been slashed by over € 6.2m over the past two years.
Money coming into Clare County Council coffers in 2012 has been set at € 10.18m, while it stood at € 16. 41m in 2009. However, this reduction still represents good news for the county’s premier decision-making body. That’s because Clare has moved rapidly up the league table of county councils around the country when it comes to the doling out of government money from the lucrative Local Development Fund.
Figures contained in the Draft Budget 2012 have revealed that Clare Council have been informed by Minister Phil Hogan that their share of the Local Government Fund has been set at € 10.18m.
“This is a reduction of 5.45 per cent on the net Local Government Fund, making a cumulative reduction of 38 per cent since 2009,” Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan has revealed. “The national levels of reduction are not yet published,” added Mr Coughlan, “but I understand that, as in 2011, Clare County Council has not suffered the most severe reductions on a national comparative basis in the Local Government Fund.”
In fact, it’s believed that Clare now sits third in the Local Government Fund league table, when once they were a lowly 23rd when it came to secured monies from the fund that’s crucial to the operation of any local authority.
The funding levels for Clare County Council in 2012 come against a backdrop of a range of cutbacks that have been administered in the local authority over the past few years.
Payroll costs have been slashed from the € 44.8m high in 2009 to € 37.9m in 2011, while it’s been projected that they will be cut to € 36.8m in 2012, which will represent a 17.8 per cent cut in three years.
“Despite the ongoing efforts to reduce expenditure and increase income, the projected financial result for 2011 is a € 500,000 deficit,” the county manager has revealed.
This deficit has been blamed on the weather, Traveller accommodation and reducing rates revenues.
The key variances are as a result of the essential works which were undertaken to respond to the adverse weather conditions in early 2011, unexpected costs relating to Traveller accommodation and the increased levels of vacant properties in the county,” said Mr Coughlan.
Further cutbacks are to be put in place for 2012, with the projected number of staff at the end of February 2012 set at 810, which compares to a figure of 1,002 in 2006, while it’s anticipated that further reductions in staffing levels will occur in 2012.
“The ongoing reduction in staffing levels has resulted in a situation where staff of the council continue to deliver services even though the number of staff available to do so has been severely reduced,” said Mr Coughlan.