This article is from page 14 of the 2008-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
COUNTY councillors last night voted to accept the budget for the authority for 2008, but struck out controversial plans to introduce re- cycling charges at centres and also voted to reduce certain water meter- ing charges.
Earlier members of Clare County Council were told that while Clare’s TDs support their calls for more funding for the local authority, noth- ing could be done until the members passed the budget they have.
Minister Tony Kileen (FF), Deputy Pat Breen (FG) and a representative of Fianna Fail’s Deputy Timmy Do- ley attended the third meeting which had been convened to try to reach agreement on the budget proposals drawn up for 2008.
Members had invited the deputies to air their concerns about short- falls in the council’s funding which had resulted in proposals to impose charges on recycling centres, among other measures.
At an earlier meeting, Mayor Pa- tricia McCarthy (Ind) issued a stern
warning that unless the councillors voted to approve the budget, the local authority would have to disband.
After hearing the members express their concerns about shortfalls in the amount of money allocated from central Government, Minister Kileen told the meeting that he understood their frustration but under law, he and the other elected TDs could do nothing to help until after the budget has been approved.
At an earlier meeting, Mayor Patri- cia McCarthy said that she had had a number of meetings with the minister
for local government, facilitated by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) and while he gave the issues a hearing, he also could do nothing until the procedure of voting to adopt the current budget was completed.
Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) said there should be money made available to fast-track the northern relief route while Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said that “all of the expenditure on roads seems to be concentrated on Shannon and Ennis and it seems there are no proposals for any major roads schemes in the west.”