Council runs out of cash as HSE tackles patients' taxis

Date Published: 22-Jun-2011

Savage cuts Galway County Council’s budget has left the local authority on track to run out of money for essential works like road repairs and hedge cutting – to the point where management has warned some senior staff that there may only be enough left to cover wages and nothing else up to the end of the year.

Engineers have been told that the Council is so strapped for cash that it may not be in a position to buy any more materials unless it gets a ‘dig out’ from central Government.

It also means that workers may be deployed from one part of the county to another to work in areas where other local authority projects are being carried out.

There is also the great fear that Galway County Council many not be in a position to purchase grit in the event of freezing conditions similar to last winter.

It is not the only budget that has been exhausted – the HSE West confirmed that its patient taxi service is running over-budget and will be reviewed, although their Regional Director insisted that no dialysis or cancer patient would be left stranded without transport.

Over €3m has been spent already this year by HSE West on taxi services for patients attending dialysis or going for cancer treatments.

The budget for the region – which extends from Donegal to Limerick – has already overrun by €1m and John Hennessy, Regional Director of the HSE, said this week that the “indiscriminate use” of the patient taxi service would end and that it would not be available to people who could provide their own transport.

It’s a similar situation at Galway County Council where senior engineers were called to a meeting and were relayed the grim news that there is no money in the pot to purchase basic materials to repair roads or fill potholes.

And this has prompted Galway West Deputy Noel Grealish to raise the matter with the Department of the Environment and demand that more essential funding be made available to the County Council.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.