Progressive Democrats councillor Declan McDonnell, the man behind the amended motion to lower an increase in development levies at last week’s city council meeting, is a little angry regarding the ongoing debate.
Cllr McDonnell, who was the councillor who amended the motion that resulted in development levies for the next year being brought down from a 10 per cent increase to a much lower five per cent increase, said his biggest concern is the belief that the change is going to cost the city €40 million.
“The estimate put forward by the city manager was to build 3,600 houses per year,” said Cllr McDonnell. “It is only an estimate though and if it doesn’t happen we will still have shortfalls. Will the Government have had, in the present economic downturn, the money to give us in funding if this is the case?”
“It is my understanding that we are still owed between €9 million and €10 million in outstanding levies from 2004 to 2007,” said Cllr McDonnell. “I’d like to know if the Government gave us the shortfall for that.”
Speaking to Galway First over the weekend, Cllr McDonnell spoke of his concerns over the events that led up to the levy vote last week. He said that himself and a number of councillors had been approached by one of the officials prior to last Monday’s city council meeting with regard to accepting a small increase in the levies. This came after no support was shown for any increase in levies was reached during a meeting of the Corporate Policy Group (CPG ). The verdict, which was reached unanimously, included two city councillors who went against their previous intent - according to Cllr McDonnell - and voted for the original motion to increase residential levies by 10 per cent.
When the unanimous support for no increase came in from the CPG meeting the official in question approached councillors stating that a small increase, at the very least, needed to take place, said Cllr McDonnell, but never informed them of the consequences that their agreement would have. They were then informed after the vote that it would mean that they would be forced to choose a number of projects within the city that would have to be shelved due to the loss in revenue that would come with a lowered levy increase.
Cllr McDonnell said he plans on asking the city manager to report on the projects earmarked between 2004 and 2009, and to let the council know which have been completed, what are the positions of them now, what funding was raised by them, and what funding was received by the government to go towards these projects.
“By reviewing these statistics we will be more able to envision the effect of the current proposals,” said Cllr McDonnell.
“We were trying to send the message to developers and builders that we’re not going to have a major increase over the next two years,” said Cllr McDonnell, who hoped it would encourage continued development within the city. “We may only do 2,000 houses in this economic climate, and if that is all we do there will be a loss anyway.”
“It is better to have a low figure and no expectations than to be unrealistic,” said Cllr McDonnell. “There is an economic downturn going on and I’m not sure if those who voted against this realise that.”
