Non-payment of household charge sees €1.5m slashed from council budget

Offaly County Council will have to work around a budget of almost €3m less than it had thought, it's been revealed this week. In a double hit of bad news councillors heard on Monday the council is to cut its spending by €1.4m to take its growing deficit into account. Then mid-week it was revealed that the council's contribution from the Local Government Fund is to be cut by a whopping €1.5m as a result of household charge payment non-compliance. Speaking to the Offaly Independent today (Thursday), Head of Finance at Offaly County Council Declan Conlon confirmed the council's Local Government Fund allocation has been reduced by 12.7%, or €1,547,135, with 25% of that to be offset against the council's third quarter payment. Mr Conlon said the final allocation amount for 2012 will be revisited in quarter four to take account of an updated financial position including progress on a household charge yield, something that was confirmed by Environment Department spokesperson Vincent Potter. County Manager Pat Gallagher expressed his disappointment at the reduction and said it will result in services and supports being cut in the county. Mr Potter pointed out allocations may not have to take the full brunt of reductions, however. "The approach adopted in each case takes account of relative household charge compliance while not seeking to apply the full (current) level of shortfall," he said. "While national and local information/compliance campaigns at political and official levels have been critical to the compliance levels achieved to date, this approach recognises that the administrative follow-up by individual local authorities (based on the data-sharing work) will now only begin to have a real bearing on the remaining compliance levels in local authority areas. Furthermore, this allows for local authorities to progressively recoup their original GPG [general purpose grant] allocation through improved household charge compliance." According to Paula Butler from the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) a total of €96,894,986 has been collected through the household charge thus far, with 986,676 properties registered. The most up to date county figures (up until June 13) say 12,566 households in Offaly had paid the charge. County Manager Pat Gallagher at that stage said compliance in the county stood at approximately 60%. Speaking this week Fianna Fáil councillor Ger Plunkett said he was outraged at the prospect of the council having to implement more cuts before the end of the year, hot on the heels of the budget being slashed by €1.4m. "It's totally unacceptable. I don't know where we're going to get the money," he said. Cllr Plunkett said the cuts have already hit roads and other vital services in the county and it was likely that items such as disabled persons grants would have to be reduced as the money coming from central government in the form of the Local Government Fund will be reduced. "I want to highlight my disgust at it," said Cllr Plunkett. "Before we do our budget for next December we've to cut between five and 15%. There was no wiggle room before the €1.4m, it's going to be totally visible on the ground. A simple pothole...it's just not going to happen. It's a scandal." Fine Gael councillor Tommy McKeigue echoed Cllr Plunkett's concerns. "I don't know where we go from here," he said, adding that the budget will go little further than paying wages in future. Meanwhile TD Barry Cowen said Environment Minister Phil Hogan is punishing Offaly County Council and other local authorities for the chaos he created over collecting the household charge. "It is Minister Hogan's fault, and not the fault of the council, that the collection of the household charge was woefully mismanaged from the start," he said. "That Minister Hogan would even consider penalising local authorities for the chaos that he created is a disgrace." HAVE YOUR SAY What's your opinion? Let us know with a comment.