This article is from page 1 of the 2012-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
DEPUTIES Pat Breen and Joe Carey are in hot water this week as news emerged that a guarantee about funding they gave to Clare County Councillors back in July will not now be honoured by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan. In his address to councillors a little over two months ago Deputy Pat Breen (FG) said the lost € 243,000 would be returned to the council’s coffers;
“You will get back what is owed to you before the end of the year. I don’t think the Council should worry about that,” he said.
“The money is not being cut. It is being with-held,” said Deputy Carey (FG) to the same meeting.
“I got that assurance from Phil Hogan,” he added. Clare County Council were informed on Friday that they now need to find the € 243k savings over the next three months.
Councillors have summoned the two Oireachtas members to a meeting next Monday to explain what has happened. The same meeting will also hear what options are available to the Council to find the necessary € 243,000 in cuts.
County Manager Tom Coughlan told The Clare People on Monday that finding the required € 243k in cuts between now and the end of the year would be extremely difficult:
“This will impact services. It will be very difficult because we had in place a very finely balanced budget that had already achieved significant cost reductions. Now we have a € 243,000 gap in funding between now and the end of the year, our options here will be very difficult,” he added.