This article is from page 20 of the 2007-09-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
NEWS of massive investment in wa- ter and sewerage schemes in Clare is ‘bad news dressed up as good”, as there will be a massive shortfall in funding which the council will have to meet, it was claimed last night.
At a meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind), asked for clarification on how much the council was expected to contrib- ute to anumber of important schemes which have been granted funding in the county.
He was told that the shortfall would be in the order of €23 million.
‘This is bad news dressed up as good. The Government is not bring- ing in a proper financial basis for local authorities. They are making councils collect up the money for these schemes themselves,” he said.
Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) called for the council to “write to the minister to point out what an intolerable bur- den this puts on this local authority”.
Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn(FG) said that on average, Clare County Council was being asked “to pay 60
per cent of the cost of these schemes. Where are we going to find that?”
Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that the council was facing a “very serious issue in going from a situation where Government fund- ing was 100 per cent to a place where we re being asked to pay nearly fifty nea Ae
In the case of one scheme, we are being asked for more than 90 per cent of the cost. We can’t expect peo- ple on the ground to pay for this.”
Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney described the announce- ment as “disappointing”.
He said he had spoken with Min- ister John Gormley twice and “out- lined the feelings of the council on DONIC OOF IA Kosa
He added that when he spoke to the minister last Thursday, he “assured me that he is going to reappraise the situation with allocations he will make next year and I will be follow- ing through with him on that”.
Councillors agreed they would write to the minister to express their concern about the effect the alloca- tions will have on council finances.