Finnerty seeks review of council funding

A RADICAL review of funding for local authorities needs to be undertaken to facilitate a reduction in rates for hard-pressed businesses in South-Galway, a local county councillor has warned.
Councillor Gerry Finnerty has called for an overhaul of the way local authorities, including Galway County Council, are being funded to allow a more equitable means of paying for vital public services.
He made the call after Galway County Council recently adopted its 2012 Budget Estimates without reducing commercial rates for businesses.
The Gort Chamber of Commerce PRO said the chamber had made efforts to see if the council could reduce commercial rates to help struggling businesses in the teeth of the economic recession.
He explained a 1% reduction in commercial rates would result in a saving of €250,000 required elsewhere in the provision of public services, such as water and sewerage.
Despite the chamber’s best efforts, he admitted the county council simply does not have the money to reduce commercial rates even by 1% or 2% this year and said this issue will have to be seriously tackled by the Government.
He also highlighted the dramatic reduction in funding for the county council’s roads budget, which has been cut by about 40% in recent years. He warned this would continue to have a “devastating” impact on local roads in the South Galway area, due to the lack of funding for road maintenance and repairs.
Businesses also face an increase in water and wastewater charges, as Galway county manager, Martina Moloney signalled her intention that the users of these services should bear the economic cost of their provision.
In the report of the Fourth Commission on Taxation, a methodology was proposed, which indicated the county council should be charging €1.62/m3. The charge in 2011 was set at €1.10/m3.
Ms Moloney proposed an increase of 17 cent per m3 from €1.10 to €1.27 in the charge for commercial water. A litre of water will now cost .00127 cent. In effect, Ms Moloney has argued the subsidy to businesses in 2012 will be in the order of €1.65 million.
The charge for wastewater in 2011 is set at €1.17, when the economic cost for wastewater should be €3.38. It was also proposed to increase the 2011 wastewater charge by 18 cent.
Ms Moloney stressed she had signalled in previous budgets that she was anxious to bridge the gap between the economic cost of providing water and wastewater and the price charged to the consumer.
“While the costs of operation and maintenance of water services is continuing to escalate, the Local Government Fund allocation, which was intended to meet the cost of supply to the domestic consumer, continues to reduce.
“Therefore, in the absence of domestic water charges, there remains a significant shortfall in funding for the cost of water services, which is unsustainable. The Draft Budget includes an income provision of €750,000 as an estimated contribution from the Department of the Environment to meet the increasing costs associated with the cost of supplying water services to the domestic sector.
“It is evident that the current approach to funding water services capital investment is unsustainable and must be amended to take account of the resource availability within the local government sector.
“Charging less than the economic cost of water restricts the availability of resources for other services. In addition, if it continues, it will impact on the council’s capacity to co-fund new capital investment, which is needed to ensure the legal compliance standards are met,” she stated.
Councillor Finnerty acknowledged there has been a huge capital investment in water and wastewater services by Galway County Council, including the €2.2 million upgrading of the existing Gort Water Supply.
In the past, Councillor Finnerty recalled there was a difficulty with the colour of the water but now the quality of the water has dramatically improved, thanks to the new scheme.
He pointed out that towns like Gort could be able to develop further if the Government sanctioned the new South Galway Regional Water Supply Scheme, costing an estimated €35 million.
He explained this would allow smaller water schemes to link in with a regional supply, particularly during times of very low rainfall or drought when there could be problems with water capacity.
However, he acknowledged that securing official Government approval for this scheme is unlikely in the current economic climate.
Householders in South Galway are also facing an increase in fire charges of 15%, with all incidents in domestic premises going from €200 to €300, apart from chimney fires.
These increases are necessary to meet increased costs in fuel, parts, supplies and plant and will allow the Galway Fire Authority to discharge its statutory functions under the 1981 and 2003 Fire Services Act.