Cllr Ciaran Brogan with Mayor McGarvey
MIDNIGHT LATEST: The County Council will collapse shortly.
Cllr John Campbell is to vote against the budget – giving those opposed to the 2014 budget a 15-13 victory and including Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail.
This is what Cllr Ciaran Brogan has just told the chamber:
Having listened to proposals from the FG Party which equates to an amount in the region €487K we are still resolute in the opinion that this deal if passed does not offer a good deal for the People of Donegal. We will not be supporting this proposal for the following reasons ;
We feel that the rates reduction of 5% which we proposed to the Management has not been met this is despite that fact that Bussiness’s across our County are struggling to remain open and that the possibility that a higher water rate being struck upon them is a growing concern within the party given the information which has come to light from Council Management.
We see a massive under funded Housing Maintenance budget which again this year will not meet the needs of our Tenants within our Housing stock.
The lack of investment in our Roads network causes serious concern to us as a group and again we feel this has not been meet either within the Budget Book or within the Proposals put forward by the FG party. County wide the deterioration of our Roads network is visible for all to see and we believe that in Years to come massive funding will be needed to correct this.
The lack of information in regards to the take over by Irish Water has not been clarified in any way. We have repeatedly asked that the facts be presented to us by the Minister & County Manager but unfortunately we are no further informed. We are seriously concerned as a group with a decision already been taken to transfer our prime assets worth €355 million to Irish Water. We are concerned that hundreds of small Housing estates and developments with mechanical & Electrical sewerage plants will be left in limbo whereby Irish water will take no responsibility for them even though they will be generating revenue form these estates, yet we as a council with no Water Services will not be in a position to take them over. We believe that those serviced by Group water Schemes will receive harsh treatment at the hands of Irish Water and this we cannot accept.
The Fianna Fail group will not support this budget because by doing so we would have turned our backs on the electorate and let the People of Donegal down. The Fine Gael Proposal seeks to get savings by maximising the collection of rates and putting more pressure on Business’s which are struggling and need discretion if they cannot pay all their Rates. This proposal will squeeze as much out of bussiness’s across Donegal as possible which in effect places these businesses at a disadvantage instead of assisting them as Fianna Fail propose. We are calling on all Political Parties and none to stand United and tackle these issues on behalf of their electorate as we are prepared to do.
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