East Clare Loses Out In Funding Allocations

Photo (c) Clare County Council

East Clare is to receive the smallest allocation of Clare’s four Municipal Districts as part of a Council initiative to spur projects in communities throughout the county.

The area will receive €30,000 less than last year, despite Clare’s other electoral areas seeing increases, and despite next year’s 15% increase in property taxes.

The method to divide out the funding has been decided by Councillors themselves.

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Under draft budget proposals, €1,273,000 will be set aside for the General Municipal Allocation in Clare next year.

This is discretionary funding for elected representatives, who put the funding towards projects in their areas.

It works out at over €45,000 for each Councillor, and will be allocated on a pro rata basis.

But that’s new, and that’s why this issue has arisen in the Killaloe Municipal District.

It shrunk in size in May’s local elections, with the number of Councillors reducing by one to five, and will now receive €227,000 under this scheme next year.

The seven-Councillor area of Ennis will receive €318,000, and the nine-Councillor areas of West and North Clare will receive over €409,000.

Those three areas are seeing a combined increase of almost €240,000 when compared with two years ago, while the Killaloe area will endure a drop of €30,000.