Despite having a collection rate for the Household Charge in excess of what the Department of Environment have said is needed in order to avoid any cuts in the 2012 Local Government fund, Mayo County Council is still going to be down €641,589 on its allocated funding this year.
In July of this year the Department of the Environment issued a circular saying that cuts could be made to the Local Government Fund for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was the level of collection of the Household Charge in a county. The fund is paid in quarterly instalments and was budgeted to account for €27,800,750 of Mayo County Council’s budget for 2012.
In his financial report to the council on the first nine months of the year, which he will give on Monday, head of finance for Mayo County Council Peter Duggan said that €2,566,357 was under threat of being deducted, and that 25 per cent of that figure was deducted from the third instalment of the fund the council received this summer, a figure of €641,589.
In his report Duggan said the council received another circular on September 21 stating that no further adjustments to the fund would be made if collection rates for the Household Charge exceeded 65 per cent. That figure has already been achieved by the council here and it will receive the full final instalment of the fund. However he says in his report that “the adjustment being made in the third quarter was no reviewed and €641,000 deducted will not be recouped to the council”.
