Martin Lydon informed the members as follows:

The Local Government Act 2001 Section 102, as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014, provides the legislative basis for the revised budget process.  It states that “In the case of a county or city council, the Chief Executive shall consult the Municipal District Members for each Municipal District in the Local Authority’s functional area in the preparation of a Draft Local Authority Budget and, for that purpose, a Draft Budgetary Plan for the Municipal District shall be prepared under the direction of the Chief Executive and submitted for consideration by the Municipal District Members for each Municipal District in the manner and in the format that may be prescribed by regulations made by the Minister.”

The draft budgetary plans for municipal districts refer only to discretionary funding available to each municipal district, as discussions on strategic and non-discretionary expenditure of the Council form part of the plenary draft budget process. The plenary budget meeting is scheduled to be held on 26^th November, 2020.

The total General Municipal Allocation (GMA) for 2021 is €2,485,200 with Roscommon MD receiving €930,100.

Martin Lydon clarified the draft budgetary plan had to be either accepted or rejected today.

Local Property Tax (LPT) Variation

The decision taken at the Plenary meeting on the 28^th September to vary the LPT basic rate upwards by 15% allowed for the following items to be included in the GMA for 2021

·         €150,000 for street cleaning.

·         €120,000 of funding has been allocated to the general roads maintenance budget.

·         €34,000 in funding has been granted to assist Tidy Town programmes and combat illegal dumping. These services are no longer funded from grant allocations.

·         Town Team funding has been increased from €8,000 to €10,000 for each of the six town teams. 

·         It should be noted that €255,000 in match funding has been provided in the draft budgetary plan. This will lead to a nine-fold increase of grant aid for capital expenditure projects covering each municipal district.

Rationale for Allocating Funds

In considering the draft budgetary plans for the municipal districts as attached, the following was considered:

1.       The needs and the resources available or likely to be made available to the Council.

2.       The resource needs of each Municipal District, including where appropriate, condition survey, population, location of facilities, etc.

The model used in 2020 for apportioning roads expenditure (33.3% Population, 33.3% Km Road, 33.3% Condition) has once again been applied in 2021.

Funding of €35,000 in Voluntary Graveyard Grants has been split equally between the three municipal districts and is included in this year’s allocation. 

There is a budget allocation of €80,000 relating to the River Suck to improve drainage and amenities. This allocation has been included for the first time and is split between Athlone and Roscommon municipal districts.

The purpose of the draft budgetary plan meeting is to provide each municipal district an opportunity to allocate its proportion of the General Municipal Allocation according to its priorities.

Schedule of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.20