This article is from page 10 of the 2012-07-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
CLARE’S Fine Gael TDs gave assurances that the county council will be reimbursed all of its Local Government funding, but only if it brings its household tax compliance to above “70 or 75 per cent”.
County Clare has the third most compliant taxpayers in the country when it comes to the household charge, yet last week when the county manager went to the council’s bank account he noticed it was almost a quarter of a million euros short.
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Phil Hogan had withheld € 243,000 of the General Purpose Grant Allocation of the Local Government Fund for the third quarter of the year.
The council also learnt that its over stretched staff will be taking over the collection of the household charge for this year, a role that is expected to be passed on to Revenue in 2013.
Clare County Manager, Tom Coughlan said that the local authority had not received any database to date from the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) so the authority does not know who has paid or has yet to pay the € 100- plus fines now incurred.
Mr Coughlan explained that when the council balanced its budget for this year, it did not make provision for this unexpected cut to its fund. Cuts had already been made to council spending at the beginning of the year so that it could balance the books, and there is very little “discretionary spending” left, he explained.On Friday last, councillors agreed at a hastily convened meeting that they would continue to spend as per the agreed budget.
They were critical of the minister for taking money out of its annual budget seven months into the year, and argued that any cuts should wait until 2013.
Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said, “I do not support any reduction in services. I do not support any financial cutback at this stage of the year. If the minister wants to make changes, he can tell us what he wants us to do in 2013 and we will deal with it then. But to force a reduction in the middle of 2012 when we have our budget passed and we are halfway through the financial year is certainly not acceptable.”
In his address to councillors, 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,” added Deputy Carey (FG). “We don’t have to face the cuts if we get the allocation up to 70 to 75 per cent. I got that assurance from Phil Hogan,” he added.
Deputy Breen said the whole purpose was to encourage local authorities to give one last push to get the money. “This money is not a cutback. It is an initiative to collect finances.” he said.
This is an initiative the council must currently face without any direction as to who has paid and who has not.