Councillors set for major wage hike
The politicians, whose representational payments and expenses are set to jump from next year thanks to Government proposals, will meet this evening to vote on the city’s 2007 budget.
Among the budget proposals are controversial plans to charge social welfare pensioners bin charges.
Up to 5,000 households across the city, where the sole income is from social welfare pensions, could be hit with a new €3 bin tag charge every time their rubbish bin is collected by the city council next year.
The final decision on whether the charge is introduced rests with city manager Joe Gavin.
However, a number of councillors have expressed serious concerns about the move.
It is estimated that the charge could raise about €300,000 a year.
Councillors will ask the manager tonight to find this money elsewhere in the budget.
However, Mr Gavin has said that his officials feel that this section of the community should contribute to the cost of waste collection and that €3 was a reasonable charge.
They will not be charged the annual €290 standing charge.
Council surveys have indicated that bins will be collected from households an average of 20 times next year.
This would result in a maximum charge to social welfare pensioners of €1.15 a week.
Meanwhile, the draft budget also contains proposals to increase the city’s Lord Mayor’s allowance, the representational payment and expenses next year.
Figures released by City Hall earlier this year showed that Cork’s Lord Mayor is paid more than the Polish prime minister.
The city’s first citizen had a lord mayor’s allowance of €89,700 per annum this year — making it one of the highest paid mayoral positions in the country.
Thanks to the Environment Minister, that is set to jump next year to €95,100.
The city mayor’s representational payment for 2006 was €15,800 and his expenses for attendance at meetings was €5,875.
The representational payment for the mayor and other councillors is now set to jump to €16,900 and the expenses to €6,169.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is paid €50,000 a year.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero is paid €87,552 per annum.
The Dublin lord mayor’s allowance is €63,000 a year. In Galway, the mayoral allowance is €43,800 and in Limerick the mayor was paid €60,849 this year.
