GALWAY COUNTY COUNCIL ANNOUNCE EFFORTS TO CLAW BACK BUDGET DEFICIT

Date Published: 30-Jun-2009

Up to 14 thousand holiday home owners across the county will be pursued for a 200 euro charge in an attempt to generate at least 2 point 8 million euro for Galway County Council.There are also fears more jobs may be lost at Galway county council in an effort to deal with a major reduction in their budget allocation.Ten million euro has been slashed from funding allocation for Galway County Council since the original budget was adopted in April of this year.As it now stands, Local Government funding has been cut from 38 million 114 thousand to 36 million 888 thousand, the roads grant allocation has been cut from 31 point six million to 23 point 3 million, and there has been an additional reduction of 1 point 6 million in capital funding.Galway County Council are also anticipating a major income reduction in areas such as development contributions, water and sewage as many families and businesses struggle with the economic downturn.At a meeting of Galway County Council today, management outlined a number of steps that will have to be taken to deal with the further cuts to the 2009 budget.These include a reduction in staff costs, travel fees and professional fees, tendering to achieve cost reduction, the offer to staff of an early retirement scheme, career break scheme and special leave without pay.