Councillors blame TDs for erosion of funds for local government

Galway’s eleven TDs have been accused of ‘sitting on their hands’ when it comes to securing adequate funding to operate the basic services.

A succession of Councillors claimed that the Oireachtas members were silent when it came to the financial allocation being provided to the county compared to other neighbouring counties.

They were speaking during the annual budget meeting of Galway County Council, which was told that the local authority once received a budget of €160 million – but that this had reduced to a low of €105 last year.

There are five TDs in Galway West, three in Galway East and three in the Galway-Roscommon constituency; the vast majority of whom served on either Galway County or City Council before being elected to the Oireachtas.

Most of the councillors who spoke on the matter agreed that the Council was under-funded to carry out essential roads maintenance works but some of them turned their ire towards the elected Dail representatives.

The criticism of TDs came from all sides of the political spectrum and it was even suggested that they be “hauled in” to account for their silence when it came to Galway’s reducing budget.

The criticism was led by Fianna Fail’s Cllr Donagh Killilea who said that the Oireachtas members had let the people of Galway down over the years and it was obvious that they did not have the political clout compared to other neighbouring counties.

A similar view was expressed by Cllr Pete Roche of Fine Gael who said that the elected TDs were presiding over a situation in which the county’s budget was being continually eroded.

“It is obvious that there are TDs and Government Ministers in the likes of Mayo, Donegal, Kerry, and Tipperary who are ensuring that their respective counties are doing a lot better than us. And that seems to be the situation which is unacceptable,” Cllr Roche added.

The Abbeyknockmoy councillor said that staff and financial resources had been eroded while the TDs that were elected for Galway had stood “idly by”.

Fianna Fail’s Cllr Gerry Finnerty from Gort said that there was very little support coming from his party when it came to providing essential funding for towns and villages. He added that by adopting the Council budget was like “voting for potholes and overgrown hedges”.

According to Cllr Niamh Byrne of Fine Gael, she is not happy with the roads allocation and has called on the TDs to try and help improve the situation.

“I will not renege on my duty as a councillor as the services of this local authority are central to the everyday lives of the people of our county.

“The decrease in road funding, community grants, economic grants are a black mark on our budget but these are there owing to the councillors who chose not to keep the increase in local property tax,” Cllr Byrne said in a salvo to the Fianna Fail councillors who wanted the property tax increase abilished.

Fianna Fail’s Cllr Seamus Walsh from Oughterard said that the TDs had failed the county and should be made accountable. His FF colleague Cllr Shane Donnellan was also vocal about the elected representatives and said that the county could do with an additional €10 million to €12 million allocation.

Independent Cllr James Charity said that it was ironic that most of the TDs representing Galway had been councillors in “a previous life” so it was hypocritical that they were ignoring the reduction in the county’s budget.