Mr. Martin Lydon, Director of Services presented the Unaudited Financial Statement for 2019 for approval.

·         A surplus of €12k was delivered on the Revenue Account, which now means the cumulative general reserve at the end of 2019 stood at €202k.

·         A combined total of €101.4m (including transfers) was spent in the Revenue and Capital Account during 2019, delivering services to the citizens of Roscommon.

·         The cash of the County Council was managed prudently, with no recourse to overdraft during the year, whilst at the same time ensuring 97% of invoices were paid within 30 days.

·         The Rates Collection rate for 2019 increased to 89% (from 86% in 2018), with an increase of €95k in cash collected. The Rents collection rate reduced by 1%, but was still an impressive 91% and the collection rate for loans increased by 21% to 76% from 55% in 2018.

·         NPPR income in 2019 was €208k above budget at €548k. This compared to €1,060k in 2018.

·         There was additional rental income of €628k generated, based on the removal of the maximum threshold and the maintaining of a fair and equitable system based on affordability. This income stream will reduce in 2020 due to the emergency in the country.

·         The budgeted figure of €1.2m was received from Department of Housing, Planning and Local

Government (DHPLG) in relation to compensation as part of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

·         Income of €286k was generated from a vacant site levy. However, this is a difficult levy to collect and a substantial bad debt provision has been provided.

The additional income and budget savings, allowed the Council to incur additional expenditure and create further provisions as follows:

2019

Velocity Patcher Units €906,000, Arts Centre €441,000, Rates Incentive Scheme €128,000

Housing Voids Programme €419,000, Rates €500,000.

The Statement of Comprehensive Income for 2019 which records revenue income & expenditure activity reported a surplus of €12K.

The Local Property Tax allocation is of continuing concern for Roscommon County Council given the fact that an amount of €7.039M has been received from the equalisation fund in order to sustain the required level of services

2019

Capital Account Activity

Capital Expenditure is also identified within the Fixed Assets and Work in Progress headings in the Balance Sheet and includes monies owed to the County Council as at 31st December 2019. Capital Account Expenditure is funded by various sources such as Grants, Loans and Development Contributions (cash received for development contributions was €708k for 2019 as against €810k for 2018). The transactions summarised in the report give an overview of the level of activity on the Capital Account during 2019. The closing balance at year end is mainly due to timing differences between the incurring of expenditure and the raising of income.

Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet shows Fixed Assets at a value of €1,865M as at the year end with Work in Progress and Preliminary Works in respect of fixed assets being €7.4M.

There was no requirement for overdraft facilities during 2019.

015

Mr. Lydon acknowledged the support and assistance of the Elected Members of Roscommon County Council in dealing with the financial issues that arose during 209 and thanked the management and staff of all business units for their co-operation and assistance in the production of the Annual Financial Statement.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Cummins

            SECONDED by Cllr. Murphy

It was AGREED to adopt the Unaudited Annual Financial Statement for the year ended 31^st December 2019