Cuts being blamed on unpaid charge -TD

Added: 20-08-2012

 

The government is been accused of using the non-payment of the household charge as an excuse for making cuts to local authority funding that had been previously planned or implemented anyway.

 

Independent TD for Donegal South West Thomas Pringle says the budgets for roads, libraries and housing maintenance had been reduced in Donegal before the level of payment of the household charge had been taken into account.

 

Figures from the Department of the Environment show Donegal County Council had its third-quarter grant payment from the Government reduced by more than €1 million to €6.7 million as a result of a local shortfall in payment of the household charge.

 

Payment of the charge is running below 50 per cent in Donegal, with recent figures showing it had been accounted for in respect of 31,729 out of an estimated 65,331 properties.

 

Deputy Thomas Pringle says the money from the Household Charge does not go into the Local Authorities funds.