Anger as city’s core funding slashed by 10%

Cork’s city manager has told councillors the city’s core funding for this year has been slashed by at least 10% to make up for the shortfall in exchequer income, even taking into account the household charge.

All city and county managers, including Cork City’s Tim Lucey, received a letter from the Department of the Environment telling them that funding could be restricted in the third quarter and that the size of the final quarter payment would depend on compliance with household charge compliance at that point.

Mr Lucey has written to councillors in Cork telling them: “In essence, the council’s original allocation of €17,265,785 is to be reduced by €1,784,411, equating to a 10.33% reduction.

“In view of the extent of adjustment notified, I will be making immediate arrangements to assess the implications of the notification and what actions the council can take to address same.

“I will be reverting to council on the matter in due course.”

Cork’s Fine Gael Lord Mayor John Buttimer said he was disappointed at the move by Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

“It is a retrograde step,” he said. “It places the council’s programme of works, which it would have budgeted for over the year, under serious pressure and under serious threat for the rest of the year.”

An emergency budget may now be on the cards for the local authority to find the extra €1.7m in savings.

Local independent councillor Mick Finn said that by “lumbering local authorities with such drastic cuts” Mr Hogan was punishing all those people who depend on local authority services, including those who have paid the household charge.

“It’s not fair and equitable; that could well be the mantra of our current Government,” he said.

“The minister is holding the council to ransom. It’s a subtle form of blackmail.”

Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Barry Cowen said it is Mr Hogan’s fault, and not the fault of the local authorities, that the collection of the household charge was “woefully mismanaged from the start”.

He said some councils faced cuts in their budget of up to 15%.

Nationally, almost one million houses have paid the household charge, netting €96.4m for the exchequer coffers.