The General Municipal Allocation (GMA ) assigned to each of the four municipal districts in the county has been one of the biggest bones of contention for councillors all across the county since the rejigging of the local government system in 2014, with councillors continuously calling for an increase in the allocations across the county. However the Ballina Municipal District still had €4,000 unallocated from the 2016 fund of €525,000 this week, which had to be approved by a resolution of the district or the funding would be lost to the area.
Two projects were earmarked for the funding and a memo sent to the councillors, with the Swinford Youth Memorial Garden getting €3,000 and the Crossmolina 1916 Centenary Committee receiving €1,000. The allocation to these projects was supported by all councillors, but one councillor raised his concerns over how the allocation of the surplus was handled. Independent councillor Seamus Weir told their meeting this week: "I just got an email from Cllr Smyth about this last night, and in principle I support the two projects, but the thing about it is there is €4,000 left over and I don't think any councillor should be butting in at this stage, there is a procedure, at the start of the year you make your application, I tried for applications, some of them failed and some of them didn't."
