Council may be forced to axe jobs in €5m shortfall

Severe cutbacks in Meath County Council"s finances could force the cutting of 45-50 jobs within the next year as the council struggles to set priorities in its spending. Meath County Manager Tom Dowling called in senior staff last Friday to give them a briefing on the council"s budget for next year and outlined details which included a reduction in its budget of €5 million. The manager gave a stark warning that savings would have to be made and there is speculation within the organisation that the first target will be staff cuts. More junior staff are expected to be briefed on the financial situation within the next few days. The council operates on a budget of €120 million. Last year, it saw an increase of €12 million but the loss of this amount, along with the €5 million reduction in effect means that it will be short €12-€13 million to run its services. According to sources in the council, the local authority sees no alternative to staff cuts in order to make savings. Meath County Council currently employs just over 800 people, including 120 contract staff, and it is envisaged that the cuts would apply to the contract area across all departments, although it is anxious to avoid hitting frontline services. The council had hoped to look at the possibility of giving early retirement packages to staff but, as yet, there is no detail on a Government suggestion that it might institute such a proposal across the wider public service. Councillors will face some difficult choices when they come to preparing for next year"s budget, expected in late November or early December. One sticky issue for councillors concerns the withdrawal of motor tax services in its Duleek and Dunshaughlin 'one-stop-shop" offices. The technology there is obsolete and it would cost up to €200,000 to update the systems and retain the motor tax service in both locations. Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee said that staff in the county council were hardly able to cope with the existing volume of work as it was, never mind the cutting back of jobs. 'The idea of closing down the motor tax facilities in the two offices will only antagonise people as they all have to head for the Navan office through increasing volumes of traffic, and endless queues at County Hall,' he said. 'The council cannot cut frontline services - it is vital that they be kept going. If I had a suggestion as to how money could be saved, I would suggest immediately that the council cut out all corporate functions. As far as I am concerned, they are a waste of time,' he added. Meanwhile, a €1.8 million cut in the Government grant used by the council to fund day-to-day services will impact on the county"s residents" normal lives, Labour Senator Dominic Hannigan warned this week. With the financial position of Meath County Council causing grave concern councillors are preparing to attend a special meeting when proposals to deal with declining funds, including the €1,8 million cut in the Local Government Fund grant are expected to be outlined. The decision of Environment Minister John Gormley to reduce the general funding grant to the council by €1.8 million for 2009 was slammed by Senator Hannigan, formerly a county council member himself. The Meath East senator described the cut as 'very bad news' at a time when local services were under pressure. Councillors from the east Meath area already have expressed horror and opposition to the decision to move motor taxation services from the civic offices in Duleek and Dunshaughlin back to Navan. Further cuts in grants would have a very real impact on the quality of life for local people, Senator Hannigan warned. Meath County Council"s finance officer Fiona Lawless declined to comment on the nature of the proposals to be put before councillors at the special meeting on Thursday 30th October but admitted that the overall position was 'serious'. The €1.8 million cut comes in the general purpose grant, down from €30.3 million to €28.5 million in a Department of Environment cut. These grants fund in the region of 30 per cent of Meath"s current spending and are the minister"s contribution towards the cost of providing day-to-day services, Senator Hannigan said. The Meath East senator said that, before this cut, Meath received less per head than the average local authority. Now, in 2009, people faced a six per cent cut in the budget and at the same time it was likely that further growth in Meath"s population would occur. 'That means more demand for fewer services,' he said. 'We need to hear from the county manager on this. How does he intend to secure the delivery of front line services?' Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said that Ireland was now in much more difficult economic times. The Government had indicated that there was considerably less money available and that all State agencies, including local authorities, must try to 'do more with less'. The minister said the changed economic circumstances were reflected in the budget allocations announced last week for all departments and in the allocations announced by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for local authorities, including Meath County Council and Trim, Navan and Kells Town Councils. Meath councillor, Jim Holloway (Fine Gael) said that 'once again, Government funding for Meath County Council has been cut'. The cut was 5.87 per cent, a drop of €1.78 million. What was so shocking was that this represented a 5.87 per cent cut in the budget used to provided day-to-day services to the people of Meath, he added.