North Longford area Municipal District reveals spending plans for 2027
The suggested budget proposals include an increase in the 'Voluntary bodies' section from €50,000 to €60,000, while the 'Tidy Towns-Development Committees' funding will jump from €16,000 to €20,000.
A larger Granard Municipal District 2027 funding allocation of €130,000, has led to a suggested increase for subservices such as 'Voluntary bodies' and 'Tidy Towns' and a decline in money for 'Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) and 'Dring Amenities'.
Fema Flanagan, the Director of Finance, said with an additional €10,000 this year the 'Voluntary bodies' section will rise from €50,000 to €60,000 and the 'Tidy Towns-Development Committees' funding will jump from €16,000 to €20,000.
She stated the allocations of €5,000 to cater for 'Christmas Lights', €35,000 for 'Special Projects' and the €10,000 for 'Town Twinning' will remain the same as last year.
"The additional €10,000 will go to 'Voluntary Bodies' and then BCPs and 'Dring Amenities' are both losing €2,000 and that €4,000 is being made available to the development committee.
"Allocations can remain interchangeable between subservices through the course of the year and that is at the discretion of ourselves.
"So, that is proposal and how you divide it out between the bodies will depend on the requests that come in by March and we will be open to more [changes]."
Fine Gael Councillor Garry Murtagh said he noticed that under the proposed allocation he noticed that 'Dring Amenities' was no longer required for €2,000.
"A committee was recently set up and it's the only place that there is public toilets in North Longford," he added.
Cllr Murtagh said he believes to remove funding of €2,000 for 'Dring Amenities' would be a 'big mistake'.
"The community group that is there at the moment is doing a fantastic job in maintaining it and looking after it and there was a huge volume of people using it throughout the summer."
Independent Ireland Cllr Turlough McGovern said he welcomed the €10,000 extra per year for Granard Municipal District.
"There is a new committee down there and we seem to be putting it all into 'Voluntary Bodies'," he added.
Cllr Colin Dalton thanked Ms Flanagan for her presentation and he supported Cllr Murtagh in relation to his points on 'Dring Amenities'.
He also stated he welcomed the extra €10,000 annually over the next three years and he enquired what the €35,000 in funding for 'Special Projects' was being ringfenced for.
Ms Flanagan responded to Cllr Dalton and said she would come back to him on that.
Cllr David Cassidy also supported his colleagues in relation to maintaining the €2,000 for 'Dring Amenities'.