This article is from page 6 of the 2005-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A CLARE county councillor has suggested that TV consumer ana- lyst Eddie Hobbs should carry out a “Rip Off Clare” investigation.
Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind) was speaking at yesterday’s monthly Clare County Council Meeting, on hearing a report of the council’s draft financial re- port.
A reduction in the amount of waste going into the county’s JE NeTeNCUUMAY SOU uciUllambemr:MenKejomti mets county council’s coffers.
This, coupled with a reduc- tion of €208,000 in Government funds, is likely to put financial pressure of the council over the coming year.
Following the presentation of the report covering the first six months of the year, councillors agreed to write to the Environ- ment Minister, to request he re- think the current funding system for local authorities.
Members of the council will also outline their concerns about the effect the overall reduction will have on the local authority.
The financial report showed that 48 per cent, or €45 million of the annual budget was used in the county from January to June, keeping the budget on target for the end of the year.
“Maintaining this position will be challenging,’ the report warned. The reduction in funds from the Government “will nega-
tively impact Local Government Funds receipts in the second half of the year.”
The members of the council are claiming that the rates they are collecting from industries, such as the ESB in Moneypoint, are being off set by the reduction from the Department.
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) asked where else the council was to get the money from, if the Minster didn’t provide it.
“On one hand, he is telling us to look after the ratepayers and not to be too hard on them and on the other hand, he is cutting our funding because we have a few big ratepayers in the county,” she said.
Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn
(FG) said the on going monitor- ing of the landfill at Inagh needed constant attention.
‘Are we going to ask ratepayers of Clare to make up deficit by the Minister?” she asked.
She said that €10 million in rates were going to the govern- ment every year from Money- point, yet funding was not avail- able to upgrade the roads for the increased traffic to the planned JON) owe sKevie
The County Manager assured the councillors that the financial situation “should be okay for this year’. But he said it was the ex- ecutive’s duty to flag stormy seas ahead.