The elected members of Mayo County Council approved a €30 million overdraft for 2012 at the November meeting of the local authority this week. The €30 million figure is a €5 million drop from the figure approved for 2011. Head of finance for Mayo County Council Peter Duggan told the members the reason for the reduction in the overdraft limit was because of a reduced capital works programme for the coming year.
Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn questioned Mr Duggan on what was the borrowing cost of this overdraft for the council, to which Mr Duggan informed him the council paid three per cent on the overdraft which was €900,000 per year.
Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne asked Mr Duggan what was the amount of money that was owed to the council by other Government agencies. The meeting was told that the NRA is paying over money on a monthly basis when invoiced for the work, but water services projects were still proving to be difficult with the council and relevant departments in discussions over the amounts to be paid. Mr Duggan said it was between €7 million and €8 million owed for these projects and the council had just been released in excess of €1 million last month for some of the projects.
