Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 440 and 441 together.

It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources. The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority.

Sligo County Council’s financial position is of serious concern to me. While it is a matter for individual local authorities to manage their own day-to-day finances in a prudent and sustainable manner, my Department is in regular consultation with the Council in relation to its financial position, including in relation to the agreement of a long term financial plan which charts a path to long term financial sustainability, being agreed between my Department and the Council; this process is on-going. I have not been prescriptive in respect of the steps the Council should take but I have asked that the plan be realistic and achievable.

I have set aside an allocation of €1 millionin additional funding for 2015 for Sligo County Council to assist it to take the steps necessary to move to a more sustainable financial position. Sligo County Council received an additional €250,000 in 2014 for this purpose but, as the long term financial plan was not finalised last year, I was not in a position to pay the remaining €750,000. The payment of the additional funding in 2015 remains fully conditional on a realistic and achievable financial plan being agreed between my Department and the Council.