Council extends overdraft to €30m amid uncertainty
CHIEF Executive of Wexford
County Council Tom Enright says that it’s impossible to tell just how much of an impact the Covid-19 crisis is going to have on the local authority’s finances. While ministerial sanction is in place for borrowing €13 million by way of an overdraft up to December
31, an extended overdraft to
€30 million has been sought and approved by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the bank to combat any cashflow issues.
In his report issued to council members, Mr Enright stated: ‘The impact of Covid-19 on the finances of Wexford
County Council will be significant across all income sources and will be disruptive to the delivery of the budgeted expenditure for 2020 both in terms of Operational and Capital expenditure. At this point the extent of this impact will not be fully known until we emerge from the crisis. In the meantime we will continue to pay our local suppliers and efforts are being made to secure as much income as possible to facilitate this and to maintain what services we can.’
He pointed out that specific arrangements were being put in place for Housing Rent, Loan and Rates customers and that all debt collection and enforcement actions have been suspended until further notice. Rate payers affected by Covid-19 are being contacted about deferring rates payments for 3 months and those who haven’t been contacted are urged to visit the council website. Those continuing to trade are still eligible though.
‘We will continue to actively pursue rates income from businesses that continue to trade and are unaffected to ensure some level of cash flow is maintained,’ Mr Enright continued. ‘The focus at the moment is on cash flow and financial management through the crisis while also trying to assist our customers in as far as we can. The ever changing situation is making this difficult to predict and manage but we will continue to monitor the situation carefully and plan towards our financial recovery once we have some indication that there is a stabilisation in the situation.’