Council agree €40m overdraft

Council agree €40m overdraft


Anton McNulty

AN overdraft of €40 million for Mayo County Council was approved by Councillors at last week’s meeting of Mayo County Council but it is envisaged that €25 million will only be needed to pay for capital projects.
The overdraft was agreed for the year ending December 31, 2010 and Peter Duggan, the Finance Manager with Mayo County Council saying that it was required to carry out capital projects.
Fine Gael councillors Peter Flynn and Michelle Mulherin felt that there should be further debate on approving the overdraft because of the amount of money owed by Government departments to the Council.
Cllr Flynn said that €40 million was a serious amount of money and the rate on the overdraft would cost the council. Cllr Mulherin said the council was owed money for works carried out and said if the overdraft cost the council money, they needed to get the money from other sources.
Mr Duggan said the council were still owed €9 million for sanitary projects and the current overdraft rate was three per cent. However, he said that while the overdraft of €40 million was approved he envisaged that they would need only €20-25 million.
He said they would deal with what they need in the year ahead and added it would be easier to reduce rather than increase the overdraft.