Kilcoyne alleges more than twenty five per cut in housing grants

Castlebar based independent county councillor Michael Kilcoyne this week alleged that the housing grants for the elderly scheme run by the council was cut by more than the 25 per cent that councillors thought they were voting for when they passed the proposal at the previous month’s meeting of the local authority. Cllr Kilcoyne told the monthly meeting of the council this week: “I believe that the housing improvement grant for the elderly has been cut from €10,500 to €6,500, this is more than the 25 per cent cut that was voted for by members last month. I urge you all to reconsider this cut, because I don’t believe that the members fully understood what they were voting for.” However the cuts in the grants to the elderly were strongly defended by a number of councillors as it was the only way to free up the grants and pay the largest number of people who were entitled to grant aid. Fine Gael councillor Eddie Staunton told the meeting: “The reason we brought this forward was so we could be fair to everyone and the cuts were 25 per cent all, around not 50 per cent as Cllr Kilcoyne is saying.” Fianna Fáil councillor Annie May Reape also backed the cuts, saying: “I make no apology for proposing this motion, you are scaremongering, Cllr Kilcoyne.”