Carlow County Council has passed its largest ever budget.
The €62.86 million spend for 2021 was voted through at yesterday’s (Friday) meeting of the local authority.
The decision caused some contention, with Councillor Adrienne Wallace voting against it.
However, Cllr Fergal Browne says there are many positive aspects to the allocation.
“We have the largest ever budget in Carlow County Council of €62.86 million, and all the municipal budgets that were partially cut initially this year have all been restored fully, as agreed at the time” He explained to KCLR News. “It’s certainly a good news story. We’ve an extra €1.4million for housing and an extra €1million for roads, so it’s great. We had a lot of concerns and worry, like everyone in the country, facing into the budget but a lot of work’s been done behind the scenes.”
While Mayor Browne has welcomed the investment, he warns there’s still great uncertainty for the council’s financial position beyond 2021.
He claims the authority is hugely reliant on funding from central government; “With both Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister Peter Burke in the Department, all the public reps would have made representations to them to ensure Carlow got adequate funding for the local authority. So it is great news that we have the budget not alone similar to last year, but actually increased. So hopefully we can provide services to the people of Carlow for the next year. Obviously we’re concerned about budgets in future years as well because we won’t know what the economic position is, but certainly we’re on a sound footing for this year anyway.”
