This article is from page 9 of the 2006-01-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
MEMBERS of Clare County Council claim the county is being financially penalised by central government, as it receives the fifth smallest local government funding in the country, at €14.65 million for 2006.
In a week when the council was once again considering the financial estimates for the year ahead, members said they were given extra responsibility and projects by central government without the financial back up.
Cllr Christy Curtain called on the Minister for the Environment and Local government Dick Roche to provide some of the money the Minister claims the country is “flush with”, and Clare will spend it. “Send it down to us and we will spend it,” said the councillor.
Fine Gael councillor Madeline Taylor Quinn told this month’s adjourned
meeting of the council that the ratepay ers from Clare were paying for money mismanagement at national level.
In a bid to finance the Council’s escalating responsibility it is proposed in this year’s financial estimates, yet to be accepted by the council, to increase rates by 5.5 per cent. This will generate an additional €1.55 million for the Council. Cllr Taylor Quinn told her colleagues “ we are expected to make up the short fall by penalising the rate payers at a time when the government is a wash with money.”
Whether councillors agree to allow the 5.5 percent rate increase, described by Cllr Martin Lafferty as exorbitant, will be decided at a special budget meeting of the council next Monday.