Councillors warned of ‘harsh’ 2012 budget

Councillors warned of ‘harsh’ decisions in 2012 budget


Anton McNulty

A number of ‘harsh and hard’ decisions will have made in the next number of months according the to County Manager, Peter Hynes in order to balance next year’s budget.
The stark reality of the state of the Council’s finances were outlined to councillors at yesterday’s meeting of Mayo County Council by the finance director Peter Duggan. While the income and expenditure of the Council were in line with their budget, the capital spending is down on last year and he explained that next year’s budget is going to be ‘extremely difficult’.
“There has been a drop in funding and government grants and next year’s budget will be very difficult. A number of difficult decisions will have to be made in the months ahead,” explained Mr Duggan.
Mr Hynes was equally as pessimistic and warned that next year will be ‘much more challenging’ than this year particularly with the slowdown of the capital programme.
“Budget 2012 is looking to be an extremely difficult balancing act and the signs are that a lot of harsh and hard decisions are coming down the line after the August break,” he warned.
The major concern among some councillors was the reduced spending in the capital programme and how it will affect water and sewerage programmes proposed for towns after the county.