Council finalising review of budget due to COVID
CORK County Council officials are this week finalising a review of the authority’s annual budget which has been made necessary due to the COVID-19 situation.
Councillors attending the first meeting of the Macroom - Millstreet District Committee since the end of February were told that while it was not intended to cut specific budgets the budget had been drafted on the basis of an expectation of a certain income and some revenue streams were not there at present.
“At this moment in time, we have no information that any money will be lost, but if budgets were decided on a certain income and that income is not going to be there, then yes certain changes are to be made,” said Cork County Council Senior Executive Officer Nicola Radley at last week’s meeting at which social distancing and other COVID-19 precautions were observed.
Ms Radley said that the decisions wouldn’t be made in isolation and councillors would be kept informed.
“We don’t yet know what changes will certainly be made and that will be done in consultation with Corporate Policy Group and with the council.”
She said that the review was underway at present and that the results would be available by the end of this week or early next week.
“There is a review underway, that was done in consultation with party leaders initially, and we expect an update on that review certainly by mid-May.”
Councillors were updated by Senior Executive Engineer James Dwyer on the work that was being carried out at present on local roads and also spoke about that work that couldn’t be carried out due to COVID-19 restrictions. This includes surface dressing of roads which has been deemed not essential. He said that the programme of work was likely to be resumed next week, after the May 18 target date for the easing of Phase 1 restrictions.
Ms Radley also confirmed that while the COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the issuing of tenders for the Briery Gap renovation, a project with an estimated cost of €6m, the delay was likely to be just seven weeks.
“We hope to get the tender out in June and we’re hoping once all that is sorted to get work underway on site in November,” she said.