Councillors reject draft Ballina budget

In what is almost a tradition by now, councillors in the Ballina Municipal District have rejected their draft budgetary plan as they do not wish to adopt it before the full county council budget.

Presenting the draft plan to councillors at last week’s area meeting, Director of Services Catherine McConnell said the main takeaway of the plan was no year-on-year increase in the General Municipal Allocation (GMA) budget of €420,000. She admitted that it made little sense to bring such a budget to area councillors before the main council budget is discussed on Monday week but said it was the system they had to work with, adding: “It is a difficult model we are forced to work with."

Leading the calls to reject the draft budget, Cllr Jarlath Munnelly said it was "an easy no".

“We all have come through local elections and we are aware of the demands and costs have gone up across the board,” he said. “We have to go into the main council budget meeting looking for even more.” 

The rejection was seconded by Independent Cllr Joe Faughnan.

“We have to see if we can get extra, we’re not getting what we should out of it,” he said.

Cllr Michael Loftus said it was shocking that the council’s overall budget has increased by €63 million from €138 million in 2019 to €201 million this year and yet GMA funding has remained static.

“A lot of that €201 million is generated from rates and we don’t get a return from that. What we put in is never recouped,” he said.

Cllr Mark Duffy said it was totally unfair that organisations who received GMA funding such as the Ballina Arts Centre had to be at the mercy of political decisions such as these every year.

“There needs to be more support centrally, it shouldn’t be a political decision every year,” he said.

Cllr John O’Hara and Cllr Annie May Reape both called for the draft budget to be rejected and for the GMA allocation to be increased, with Cllr Reape remarking that they would need to "double" the current GMA to meet all of the needs.