Council finds funds to make up for €300,000 pay parking shortfall

LOUTH County Council has found funds to make up for the shortfall in revenue from the suspension of pay-parking in Drogheda, councillors heard at their monthly meeting on Monday.

Chief Executive Ms Joan Martin outlined that there would be an reduction of at least €300,000 to €400,000 in income over three months as it was expected that the end of June was the earliest that the by-laws would be back in place.

She recalled that stating previously that if there were to cuts to fund this shortfall it would be from the area of discretionary spending but she had since looked into the situation along with Head of Finance Bernadette Woods.

The closing of accounts for 2017 had just been completed, they were able to see that there was a modest surplus in the Annual Financial Statement, dating back to 2014 when they were setting money aside to make up for a deficit, so they now had a €250,000 reserve which they didn’t need. In addition, they were also due to receive money from the Irish Public Bodies, and with the release of that money, an amount of €250,000 would be available to them.

She proposed that they use those funds to cover the shortfall of income so that there would be no need to make cuts to any of the areas of discretionary spending.

In response to Cllr Kevin Callan, she said that there was no way of knowing that money was available when the budget was drawn up last year and refuted any suggestion that she had mislead the council. And it was ‘incorrect’ to suggest the by-laws were illegal, she told Cllr Frank Godfrey,