Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No it was not under threat. As part of the plan, the Department agreed to give an extra €1 million to Sligo each year over a five-year period. Only nine months later we are now in a situation where we are being told the plan is not workable. I have to stand over a situation where we are trying to bring back an acceptable level of financial management to the local authority in Sligo. Of all of the councils in the country I accept that Sligo County Council is under more pressure than any other. That is why we have a financial plan in place, which was agreed and signed off with the council, whereby Sligo gets special treatment. We put €1 million that otherwise would not go to Sligo into Sligo County Council each year for the next three to four years, up until 2019. It is not true to say that we are asking for a surplus of €4 million at any stage in the future. I am sorry but that is not accurate. In 2016 the figures are €2.3 million; in 2017, €3.41 million; in 2018, €3.1 million and in 2019, €2.8 million. They are the figures that were signed off by the chief executive of Sligo County Council only last December. We are trying to work on that basis, with all the challenges faced by Sligo County Council and we continue to work in that regard.

The chief executive wrote to me with a number of asks before the meeting which were nothing to do with politics. They were about financial management. There was an issue in relation to local enterprise offices, LEOs, and we said we would accommodate that. There was also an issue about the impact of site resolution tax in Sligo, which we also said we would accommodate, and adjust the targets accordingly. Other issues included the deferral of payments from this year to next year. We are looking to see whether we can accommodate that. There is no politics at play here. What is happening is that I am trying to work with Sligo County Council to manage a very difficult historical debt situation, to ensure that over the next four or five years we get a level of management back into the financial resources that are available to Sligo that is sustainable into the future. At the same time, part of the financial plan was to ensure that services remain intact.

Reference was made to staff numbers but if one looks at staff numbers in neighbouring local authorities they are not that different to Sligo. I accept there are particular problems at the moment concerning the library service, because a number of staff are out. Of the 12 or so staff that are assigned across three libraries, a number of them are unable to work at the moment. Again, we are trying to work through that with the management as well. I will not come to the House and have people shout across the Chamber at me, saying that we are doing nothing for Sligo. We are working with a plan that Sligo signed off on and we are trying to ensure that it can be as workable as possible. We are adjusting targets to try to address some of the requests that have come from management in the local authority and we will continue to work with it to ensure that we find a viable way forward.

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