I have not received a request from the cathaoirleach and members of Sligo County Council as outlined in the Question. I met with the Chief Executive of Sligo County Council and his senior management team on 13 November 2014 to discuss the Council’s financial situation with them. The continued deterioration of Sligo County Council’s financial position is of serious concern to me, despite the achievement of savings in recent years. Sligo County Council has incurred revenue deficits for the last 6 years, has an accumulated deficit of over €19m and also has long term debt of over €120m.
I acknowledged at the meeting the steps that had already been taken by Sligo Borough and County Councils and noted that it is a matter for each local authority, including Sligo County Council, to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to Government policy and both locally identified needs and available resources. The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority. While it is a matter for individual local authorities, including Sligo County Council, to manage their own day-to-day finances in a prudent and sustainable manner, my Department is in regular consultation with the Council in relation to its financial position as to continue the trend of recent years in simply untenable.
I also pointed out that the next steps to move to a sustainable financial position need to be taken by Sligo County Council, and need to be reflected both in its budget for 2015 and through the agreement of a long term financial plan with my Department.
The following revision was received on 2 December 2014
The first sentence of the reply above should be replaced by the following:
I did receive a request from the Cathaoirleach and members of Sligo County Council as outlined in the Question.
