CORK County Council has approved its first balanced budget in several years with no increases in either the Local Property Tax (LPT) or commercial rates.
For the first time in as many years, the local authority wasn’t forced to dip into its general revenue reserve to approve the €458m budget, an increase of €55m from last year’s budget of €403m.
At this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, councillors voted to approve the budget, but many expressed concern about certain aspects, including the need for more outdoor staff.
There will be an increase of €18.4m for housing, while roads will also get an increase of €22.1m. The Council has also been allocated €1.2m from the Department of the Environment to deliver the Community Climate Action Programme.
Meanwhile, the capital investment programme for 2024 to 2026 outlined a proposed investment of over €1.5bn across the entire range of services including housing, library provision, coastal protection, and flood relief.
Temporary chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan said balancing the budget is ‘a huge achievement’, which maintains service levels at a time of high inflation. She also addressed the issue of outdoor staff and will ensure to have a full complement of 374 staff on the ground in 2024.
The Council’s finance director, Jeremy Canty, said it was a great position to be in by presenting a balanced budget to councillors. Cllr Seamus McGrath (FF) said there are many positives in the budget but pointed out that they need more outdoor staff.
His colleague Cllr Joe Carroll called for mobile units to tackle roads and said that some roads in West Cork will need even more funding to repair them than the allocation mentioned in the budget. Ms O’Sullivan also rejected a comment from Cllr Gillian Coughlan (FF) that the budget was ‘stale and was not looking into the future enough’.
‘We were All-Ireland winners two weeks ago at the LA (local authority) awards and that doesn’t happen if we are stale and or tinkering with the present,’ she said.
