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 purpose of a Draft Budgetary Plan is to provide each Municipal District an opportunity to allocate its proportion of the General Municipal Allocation (GMA) according to its priorities.  The draft budget shows an overall increase of 29% in the GMA compared to 2019.  This would not have been possible without the increase for 2020 in the Local Property Tax of 15%. 

Martin clarified that this draft budget has to be either accepted or rejected today.

Schedule of Municipal District Works and Service Delivery Plans

Section 103(A) (1) provides that, following the adoption of the Local Authority Budget, a schedule of proposed works of maintenance and repairs to be carried out during 2020 in each Municipal District shall be prepared under the direction of the Chief Executive, having regard to the availability of resources.

The Schedule of Municipal District Works shall be considered by the Municipal District Members concerned and be adopted by resolution, with or without amendment. In making an amendment, the Municipal District Members shall have due regard to the Local Authority Budget adopted in accordance with section 103(9).

The Draft Budgetary Plan refers to discretionary funding only.

In producing the Draft Budgetary Plan, the following was considered:

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

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

The Corporate Policy Group considered the basis for apportionment of Roads expenditure and decided on 23^rd September, 2019 to change the criteria for apportionment in 2020.  It will be based on a model of 33.3% population, 33.3% km of road and 33.3% road condition.

The Roscommon GMA for 2020 is €961,307.  The following will be included in the budget for 2020 -

• €85,000 Municipal District Fund for each MD is reinstated for 2020.  A new governance model and scheme for allocating the funds will be produced.
• €150,000 has been included overall for street cleaning with Roscommon MD receiving €51,373
• An overall figure of €120,000 has been allocated to roads at the request of the members
• €22,000 additional funding has been allocated across the 3 areas to assist in the Tidy Towns Programme and combat illegal dumping
• €25,000 funding has been assigned to maintain services in Roscommon Town Park

There is one adjustment to be made to the draft budget –

€83,700 under Local Spaces should be €85,700 to include €2,000 funding for Lough Errit.  This adjustment will increase the overall GMA for the Roscommon Municipal District to €963,307.

On the PROPOSAL of Councillor Leyden

            SECONDED by Councillor Fitzmaurice

It was AGREED to adopt the Roscommon Municipal District Budget as presented subject to the amendment of €2,000 as discussed. 

The members commented on the draft budget as follows –

• The draft budget was welcomed by all the members.
• The return of the Roscommon Municipal District Fund for 2020 was welcomed as it should help groups avail of additional funding for substantial projects. 
• The requirement to source additional money to fund services was highlighted at the CPG and that is why the members approved an increase of 15% in the Local Property Tax for 2020. 
• The importance of maintaining essential services was discussed along with the requirement to grow our towns and villages.
• The additional funding for Tidy Town’s was welcomed and the enormous work carried out by the volunteers was commended.