THE Limerick County Council revenue account was €1.3 million in arrears for the first six months of this year, mainly due to underperforming areas such as landfill charges, planning fees, burial ground charges and fire charges.
Pat Murnane of the Limerick Local Authorities finance department told this month’s meeting that the total expenditure on the revenue account was €49.3 million, while income amounted to €48 million.
He added that the income from commercial rates was higher than for the same period in 2012, while the bank overdraft was not used “indicating that all is well at this moment in time”.
Cllr Bill O’Donnell said that the shortfalls in income showed there were “more people recycling, less people dying and less houses going on fire”.
The Fine Gael Councillor added: “We should look on the bright side of these figures.”
His party colleague Liam Galvin said that the biggest concern was the shortfall of over 40,000 tonnes at Gortnadroma landfill, which he described as “a massive loss of revenue”.
Mr Murnane acknowledged that the landfill was underperforming and the Council would meet with operators in the coming weeks to discuss options for increasing volumes.
