Hairdressers lost 'a lot of money' due to water outages in Leitrim town

Hairdressers lost out on profits during significant water outages in Ballinamore and there needs to be a focus on getting water infrastructure in order, said Cllr Gary Prior recently. 

He was speaking after Leitrim County Council revealed that it is proposing that commercial rates could be set to increase by 5 per cent in Leitrim next year ahead of its annual budget meeting next Monday. 

It was also revealed that council intends spending 64 million euro in 2026 - and continuing a six-year capital investment programme.

He told the Leitrim Observer: "We need an investment in Irish Water and our infrastructure; there's no doubt about that but that's not under the remit of the local authority. We did hear from businesses that there was a lot of disruption due to water outages that were storm related and pipe infrastructure related. There could be concerns there. I will be pointing that out; we did hear back from businesses that due to disruption to water services, businesses, such as hairdressers lost businesses, especially coming up into weekends. It's a lot of money."

READ MORE: Green light for redevelopment of site to create new further education campus in Leitrim

Cllr Prior said that anything that puts businesses under further pressure isn't "good and we would have hoped that the VAT would have been reduced by now but it's still not in place so it's further concerns for businesses."

He added: "From a local authority point of view, we need to finance capital projects and projects so you have to take the two into consideration and it will definitely be up for discussion on Monday's meeting."

He noted that there was an increase last year and stated that "year on year increases are not great but that's not to say there won't be a huge concern this year."

He noted that the Power Up Grant is a €4,000 grant for eligible businesses in the hospitality, retail, and beauty sectors did help with the cost of electricity, however this may not be enough. "It is a concern that rates might rise as it might put them under more pressure and that's not good."

Referring to the upcoming budget, he said: "We did have some dialogue with the executive and members of the executive over the last couple of weeks from a corporate policy point of view and were told that there's no larger amount of money for spending. I'm not saying that things are tight in any way, shape or form but the costs are rising which is the problem."

Cllr Prior said an increase in funding for roads would be welcome "but we just can't seem to get that increase.

Referring to housing he added: "It's the pace at which houses are coming on stream; they are slow."