This article is from page 4 of the 2012-12-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CLARE County Council meets today to set the county’s budget for the coming year with 1.02 per cent less coming from the Local Government Fund.
The local authority has been allocated € 10.7 million from central government for 2013, just over a percentage less than it was allocated at the beginning of last year.
However during the third quarter of 2012 Central Government reneged on paying out € 247,000 to the Clare council due to a nationwide under payment of the household charge.
The council members agreed to continue with the budget as set out earlier in the year on reassurances from Government TDs that the € 247,000 would be returned. However it has since been announced that the funding lost during the third quarter will not be returned.
It is still unclear if Clare County Council will have to find the money to cover the quarter of a million loss from the 2012 budget in the newly reduced 2013 budget, putting extra pressure of the council coffers.
Since 2008 the council’s allocation from central Government has been reduced by 39 per cent from € 16.48 million to € 10.07 million.
In his introduction to the draft Budget Plan, County Manager Tom Coughlan said, “The preparation of the Draft Budget 2013 has proven to be particularly difficult due to the fact that the scope to achieve operational saving is progressively reducing. Significant savings have been achieved in recent years, and as the cost of service delivery has been “squeezed” during those years, we are approaching a level of serv- ice delivery cost which is difficult to reduce without diminishing the level of service itself. “The underlying objective of this Draft Budget 2013 is the maintenance of existing levels of services while simultaneously reducing the overall expenditure of the council to reflect severe reductions in income.” That is the challenge that faces the council members today – pay for the same services.