A local councillor says the upcoming budget will be “very challenging” for Kilkenny County Council.
Yesterday’s monthly meeting of the local authority heard that they are facing a deficit of at least €5,500,000.
It comes as the council has signed off on a significant €200,000 loan for the Watershed swimming pool.
Cllr Michael Doyle says the elected members aren’t yet sure how dire the budget will be telling KCLR News “The upcoming budget is going to be extremely challenging, I suppose there’s a lot of figures being bandied about at the moment, they’re talking in the millions of euro at this stage in losses, but I suppose in reality we’re going to have to wait for the Department to clarify what they’re going to refund for definite before we make any decisions good, bad or indifferent to the budget”.
He says of the lower than previously predicted deficit “I’m happy that it’s down to 5.5 million from 8.4 or something like that out of the figures previously mentioned but still, at the end of the day, that’s a huge deficit currently and government need to address that issue because the function of the local authority’s going to be seriously affected if there’s not funding delivered to local authorities across the country let alone Kilkenny”.
Cllr Doyle however added there needs to be further clarity on the exact figure noting “It was news to us today, we had previously been briefed in relation to the deficit and the figure that was mentioned was 8.4 million so the reduction is something that they may elaborate more on when it comes to budget time”.
