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Ballinasloe and Loughrea Municipal Districts pass their budgets
Galway Bay fm newsroom – Ballinasloe councillors have controversially passed the draft budget for the Municipal District.
At a meeting this week, Ballinasloe councillors were presented with an indicative expenditure figure of 5.8 million euro for 2019.
This is up from 4.7 million euro for 2018, due to an increase in road funding nationally.
However all councillors were concerned that the funding for things such as parks and open spaces and recreational development has not changed.
Director of Services with the county council, Ger Mullarkey told members that Ballinasloe Municipal District has no extra funds apart from a slight increase in rates to bring them in line with county rates by 2020.
Councillor Dermot Connolly proposed that the draft Budget be rejected and was supported by Councillor Tim Broderick.
Leas Cathaoirleach Michael Finnerty and Councillor Aidan Donohue supported adopting the Budget, which was passed as the Leas Cathaoirleach had the casting vote.
Councillors Michael Connolly and Donal Burke were absent.
Councillor Tim Broderick says he didn’t feel a Budget should be passed when boundaries will be changed half way through next year.
Councillor Michael Finnerty says he understands the concerns about boundaries, but it’s better to pass a Budget.
Meanwhile, Loughrea councillors have voted to pass a budget for the municipal district for 2019.
Councillors met this week to discuss the proposed budget, which stands at €7.4m – up from €5.7m for this year.
Although the budget was adopted, a number of issues were raised – including lack of clarity over how allocations are actually being spent.
Councillor Shane Donnellan also took issue with the lack of funding for traffic management measures in Loughrea town and across the district.
He noted that despite the issue being raised repeatedly, just a token – and ultimately useless – amount of €10 thousand is being set aside to cover the entire area.
Other discussion points included lack of disabled access at Loughrea Lake – and funding concerns related to the upcoming expansion of the municipal district.
There was also confusion over funding for open spaces in Loughrea – something Councillor Michael ‘Moegie’ Maher is confident will be sorted.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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