Household Charges in North Tipperary

A significant surge in payment of the €100 Household Charge in North Tipperary in recent weeks has resulted in the lifting of a Government threat to further slash funding for local government services in the county.

During the summer Environment Minister Phil Hogan, noting that just over half of North Tipperary householders had paid the charge, threatened to cut the County Council’s Local Government Fund of €14.5 million by €1.5 million. Such a cut would have resulted in major cuts in local government services across the county.

But over the past six weeks or so a surge in payments saw a further 8 per cent of householders pay the charge, thereby removing the threat of the swinging cuts being imposed.

Two out of three householders in North Tipperary have now paid the new €100 charge, County Manager Joe MacGrath disclosed this week.

The manager said the council had thrown additional resources at the collection of the charge in a bid to get as much funding in as possible. The current figure of compliance is 66 percent.

Good news for the local council came on Friday last when the minister announced that local authorities where the compliance rate was at or above 65 percent would not be penalised with any further reductions in funding.

Welcoming the announcement, the Mayor of North Tipperary Michael O’Meara said the €1.5 million cut threatened by the Minister would have had major implications for local authority services.

Mayor O’Meara said he had spoken to the County Manager Joe MacGrath and was assured that a €377,000 cut in funding imposed to date was “manageable”.

He said the manager Mr MacGrath had been successful in making savings through a number of other measures that would significantly reduce the impact of cuts already imposed in the Local Government Fund.

“That level of cut of €377,000 is a blow to us but we are able to carry it without any major effects on the people of North Tipperary,” said the Mayor.

He added: “The minister will not be coming back to us to make further cuts because he has given a commitment not to review funding allocations to council that have a compliance rate of 65 per cent or over.”

The minister has warned that councils who have failed to achieve that compliance threshold will have their funding reviewed in November.

via The Nenagh Guardian.