Ballina councillors seek an increase in funding for local initiatives

Councillors in the Ballina Municipal District have said they require a significant increase in the General Municipal Allocation (GMA) in this year’s budget.

Councillors rejected a draft budget put before them at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the municipal district, arguing that they needed to discuss the main council budget in advance of accepting their own budget. Under the current draft budget, Ballina councillors would get GMA of around €70,000 each or a total of €420,000 between the six councillors

Fine Gael Cllr Jarlath Munnelly said this was not enough and suggested doubling their GMA budget. The GMA is used to support all kinds of community initiatives.

“This GMA amount is not enough. We’re very good with our GMA spending in Ballina and should be getting a greater allocation.”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Annie May Reape said she could not understand why Ballina had to have a significantly lower budget. The Claremorris-Swinford MD had a proposed budget of €700,000 while Castlebar and Westport-Belmullet districts had budgets of €490,000 each.

Cllr Michael Loftus proposed that the council’s total GMA budget be increased to €3 million, allowing an allocation of €100,000 per councillor. This would give Ballina a total fund of €600,000.

The main budget meeting of Mayo Co Council takes place next Monday.