Lawlor seeks state bailout for council
THE Mayor of Wexford has called on the government to put together an urgent financial bailout package for Wexford County Council. Cllr George Lawlor says that if financial assistance is not forthcoming from the government, then the level of services offered by the council going forward will have to be significantly reduce as the ‘catastrophic’ impacts of the Covid-19 crisis are felt.
While the latest report from the Chief Executive of Wexford County Council, Tom Enright, shows that the council’s spend so far in relation to Covid-19 is €394,000, it is believed that the local authority could be at the loss of a similar figure weekly as a result of the loss of rates alone.
‘ The cost of this to the council is going to run into millions,’ Cllr Lawlor said. ‘At this stage, it has the potential to have a catastrophic impact on council services unless the government intervene to provide some kind of bailout. Local Authorities are the driver of a local economy and it’s imperative that the government provides assistance so that they can navigate these unprecedented times.’
Speaking of the impact of the Covid crisis, Council CEO Tom Enright said: ‘During the month of April we saw significant drops in income and income transactions, most significantly but not limited to Commercial Rates, Housing Rents, Housing Loans and Car Parking income. The emergency also continues to impact on the council’s ability to deliver budgeted expenditure for 2020 both in terms of Operational and Capital expenditure while we also accumulate unplanned expenditure on our response to the crisis. In the current uncertain situation it is not possible to determine or estimate the full impact or the extent of the impact and for the moment the focus will be on monitoring the situation and increasing efforts to secure as much income as possible to try and stabilise our financial position in as far as we can.’
Cllr Lawlor said that the only visible solution at this stage is a government bailout.
‘ This is something that could have a huge impact on every council the service provides – you’re talking about basic things like street cleaning, our roads, public lighting, our fire service – everything will be affected unless the government steps in and soon.’
The Labour councillor is also calling on the private sector to ‘play their part’ and he is hoping to persuade commercial landlords to offer a one-year rent break to businesses struggling to re-open in the wake of the pandemic. While on the face of it, it sounds like a hard sell, Cllr Lawlor believes it will benefit everyone in the long run.
‘Well if they don’t give tenants some kind of break, businesses will undoubtedly close,’ he said. ‘In that scenario it’s quite likely that they’ll be left with an empty premises for a year in any case.’