Left-wing parties told help fix budget woes

Negotiations are continuing as Cork City Council prepares its 2017 budget. It has a €1.6m hole in its finances. A proposed rates hike for city businesses, to plug the gap, proved unpopular with elected members.

Former lord mayor Terry Shannon

The budget vote will be held at a meeting on November 16, with elected members meeting city officials tomorrow afternoon to discuss a potential compromise.

If the commercial rates hike is dismissed, councillors may have to find cuts in city services to cover the deficit.

Mahon-based city councillor, Terry Shannon, said that members needed to bring ideas to the table to solve the dispute, rather than simply dismiss proposals.

Mr Shannon previously described members of Sinn Féin and the Anti-Austerity Alliance as ‘do nothing councillors’ who opposed the budget as ‘a PR stunt.’

He said: “I will be challenging all the other groups to come up with alternatives. We have a hole of €1.4 or €1.6m in the budget — if a rates hike or service cut is not acceptable, then come up with your own alternative. Where would you find the money?”

“If you think the Government should pay it, that’s fine — but they have told us that they won’t.”

Mr Shannon criticised a call by AAA councillor, Fiona Ryan, to refuse to pass the budget.

Failure to pass a budget in the coming weeks would see the local authority dissolved and an administrator appointed to run the city, instead.

Mr Shannon said: “I think the Government would be only too delighted to abolish Cork City Council.

“They will then appoint an administrator, who will increase property tax, hike rates, and cut services, all the while pushing towards a merger, with nobody in the way to tell them to stop.”

“Blaming the Government for this mess is fine, but we need to come up with the solutions.

“In the coming days, we will see if the ‘do nothing’ councillors are prepared to do some heavy-lifting.”