THE MINISTER FOR the Environment, Community and Local Government Mr Phil Hogan has given no indication that he will provide Sligo County Council with a bailout of €15 million which has been sought by the new County Manager.

Responding to a Parliamentary Question in the Dail submitted by United Left T.D. Clare Daly, the Minister said “My Department is in regular and on-going correspondence with Sligo County Council in relation to their financial position, including the letter to which the question refers.  It is a matter for individual local authorities to manage their own day-to-day finances in a prudent and sustainable manner.”

In her Parliamentary Question Deputy Daly asked the Minister if he had received a request from the new Sligo County Manager seeking a bailout of €15 million for Sligo County Council, to be paid by installments of €1.5 million per annum over a ten year period, so as to address the accumulated debts of the Council.  She also asked the Minister if it had been drawn to his attention that the annual budgets drafted by senior Council officials and presented to councillors for adoption had led to Sligo County Council having the highest overall deficit balance of all county and city councils.  

She asked the Minister if he was aware that Council had a deficit of €2.8 million in its revenue account in 2008, a deficit of €3.2 million in 2009; a deficit of €2.4 million in 2010; a deficit of €2.9 million in 2011; a deficit of €2.4 million in 2012; and that according to the most recent Auditors Report released in November 2013, the Councils total revenue/capital debt had grown to €94 million.

The Minister in his reply said it was a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources. “The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority.”

Speaking today Cllr Declan Bree said “A bailout of €15 million is barely sufficient to allow the Council to survive.  If the Council hadn’t received a €1million bailout from the Department last December it would not have been capable of adopting its annual budget.  

“For the past number of years Council Management asked councillors to adopt annual budgets that were based on fantasy, budgets that were absurd and unrealistic, budgets that led to massive deficits in the revenue account each year.  And unfortunately the majority of councillors placed their trust in the management and constantly voted for the budgets which has brought the Council to the verge of bankruptcy.  It’s obvious that the Council cannot survive without a bailout.” said Cllr Bree