Inishowen councillors warned council is facing  a ‘very difficult budget’

Inishowen county councillors have been warned that Donegal County Council is facing a very difficult budget for next year due to inflationary pressures.

Councillors have passed a draft budget for the Inishowen Municipal District that will see it granted a general municipal allocation of €180,000, with each of the nine councillors allocated a discretionary spend of €20,000.

The council’s head of finance Richard Gibson told Tuesday’s municipal district budget meeting that the local authority is facing a “very, very difficult” budget for 2023 due to “inflationary pressures”.

The council is facing particular pressures on pay, energy, fuel, construction materials and IT infrastructure, he said. The local authority has received an allocation from the Government to partially offset staff pay increases and will receive a slice of a €60m fund for local authorities to cover energy cost increases.

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The council is also facing a particular demand for co-financing on its “huge capital programme”.

Mr Gibson said the Local Property Tax and commercial rates are unlikely to provide any additional income, as the former “is already maxed out” after the council voted last month to maintain it at 15% above the baseline and an increase in the latter would put pressure on businesses.

The council’s budget book is due to be released to councillors by November 11 with the plenary budget meeting to take place on November 21.

It will be impossible to say what the final allocation for the municipal district will be until the full budget is adopted, Mr Gibson said.

With the increase in costs and no increases in income “the best we can hope for is to keep the status quo” and put the same budget in place for next year as this year, Mr Gibson said.

A priority for the council is to protect the funds such as the Development Fund Initiative and the  Members Development Fund, that councillors allocate to community groups, and to continue providing services, he added.

Councillors passed the draft budgetary plan which was proposed by Cllr Martin Farren and seconded by Cllr Rena Donaghey.

Cathaoirleach of the MD Cllr Paul Canning said he hoped Donegal’s contribution to renewable energy would influence the allocation the local authority receives for rising energy costs.