by Alan Jacques
COUNCILLORS in Adare-Rathkeale municipal district have unanimously agreed to seek legal advice over Limerick City and County Council’s proposals for spending its General Municipal Allocation of €275,000.
Elected council members and local authority’s senior executive came to an impasse this Tuesday morning when an agreement could not be reached over how the allocation would be spent.
The six area councillors pointed out that they had they had agreed for the GMA funding to be divvied up with €50,000 going to local roads; €40,000 on park, pitches and playgrounds; €20,000 on community initiatives; €65,000 on tourism development and promotion, and €100,000 on special projects. However, the disgruntled public representatives were insistent that they had at no point agreed any further breakdown of how funding would be spent.
Fine Gael councillor Stephen Keary said he was “disgusted” and accused the senior executive of a “gross attempt” to take council members’ influence out of local government. He called for legal advice to be sought on the allocation of GMA funding.
“This does not reflect the spirit of the way the money was supposed to be spent,” he said.
Independent councillor Emmett O’Brien insisted that the Council’s move showed contempt for the people of Adare/Rathkeale municipal district. He claimed that local authority management were trying to do the job council members had been elected to do.
“Frankly, this is unacceptable. We are being dictated to by the executive,” said Cllr O’Brien.
Mayor of Limerick City and County, Cllr Kevin Sheahan promised that the six local area councillors would work together with the senior executive without rancour and disagreement to resolve the issue.
“There needs to be an element of maturity,” the Fianna Fail councillor declared.
“We need to work in tandem with the executive. I am confident that we will get a result that will best suit our constituents.”
The Council’s head of finance and Adare-Rathkeale district director, Tom Gilligan, told council members that he was disappointed with some of the language used and felt it was not accurate.
“As far as I’m concerned we have already agreed where we are going to spend the €275,000. What we are doing is outlining specifically where it will be spent, adding flesh to the bone,” Mr Gilligan explained.
