Council says focus on job retention as cutbacks implemented

Westmeath County Council heard on Monday that money from other areas of expenditure will be reallocated and diverted into the 2009 Roads Programme. The meeting discussed a €3.8m cut in the regional and local roads funding of €17.7 million as part of the mini-budget earlier this month. County Manager Danny McLoughlin said road grants were down by €3.8m in the revised budget. He said when the council adopted its own budget in December it had been based on certain assumptions in relation to road grants. The County Manager said the council"s emphasis would be on job retention. He said he didn"t propose the council could make up the €3.8m shortfall, but said it was important to retain jobs and the council had many staff with significant experience. He added that the council would try to make a 5% saving across all other areas of expenditure and divert this funding into the 2009 Roads Programme. Mr McLoughlin said the council also planned to temporarily postpone the village renewal schemes, which would allow €615,000 to be reallocated to roads. Cllr Cooney commented: 'I accept fully that the Manager will use resources and move things around so we can have some improvement on roads, but clearly €3.8m cannot be found. What is most difficult is that this grant was given to us earlier in the year.' The manager also outlined the council"s plans to control expenditure in order to adhere to a Government directive which prohibits local authorities from reducing its current account balance to below what it was at the end of last year. 'If the current trends are sustained I see us ending the year in no worse a position than we started it, although services will be affected,' he said. Fine Gael Cllr Mark Cooney had asked: 'In light of the financial directive from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government that members be advised as to what impact this will have on the deliver of the council"s services for 2009 and in particular what element of revenue/capital expenditure will be curtailed, postponed or cancelled.' Mr McLoughlin told the councillors that in relation to expenditure a number of targeted reductions had been necessary such as in relation to salaries and said the council had put in place its own restrictions before the Government cap. He said the income from rates was down by about €400,000 or €500,000 due to closures. Mr McLoughlin added that the Local Government Fund hadn"t been adjusted and said any money collected by the council from the new non-principle residence levy would be retained by the council. The council had budgeted for €350,000 in planning fees, this had only realised €85,000 to date. Income from bin tags was down by 12%, he said. Cllr Mark Cooney said he accepted fully that the council executive was doing its best to maintain services, but the councillors had agreed the budget in December based on funding that had been promised from Central Government. He said it was difficult for them, as a local authority, to provide a level of service when they had no idea what was coming next. Cllr Cooney said in relation to bin tags private companies were offering more competitive rates, but currently the council offered a waiver scheme for those who could not afford bin tags and if the general public didn"t support the council"s bin tag system this waiver scheme would be in danger. Cllr Joe Flanagan expressed concern for the 2009 Road Programme and said in the rural area he represented potholes were a major problem. 'It"s practically impossible to get a pothole filled in my area,' he said. 'There are actual craters. I don"t know what we"ll do come the end of the year.' He added that many of the villages which had been impacted by the building of the motorway would now have to suffer due to the postponement of the Village Renewal Scheme. Cllr Kieran Molloy said he thought the Manager"s report would have been worse, but there was good news in that the staff would not lose their jobs. 'I"m afraid the economic downturn came and whether people like it or not I have very little impact on how the Government runs things,' he said. He said the council should be able to maintain its level of service and said he was glad the €600,000 for Garrycastle Bridge was still there. Cllr John Dolan said he was very disappointed with the roads allocation and said it left the council in a very difficult situation. 'It"s impossible for the council to budget for the year with parts of the budget not confirmed or taken away,' he said. Cllr Dolan said the councillors were all there to represent the people in their areas and the people deserved better. 'I don"t think it"s acceptable in 2009 to be talking about potholes. There are lots of roads out my way falling apart,' he said. He added that the roads, many of them national secondary routes, were not luxuries, but emergencies. Cllr Tom Allen said everyone would like to see more money sent down from Central Government, but if there was more money it would be coming from taxpayers. He said €90m was a lot of money and the council would have to work with what it had. Cllr Kevin "Boxer" Moran told the County Manager he was delighted with the report he had put before the councillors and said he had been expecting much worse. He said the councillors and council needed to work together and asked the County Manager to keep the members up to date every two months.