Rural areas need higher council budgets - Mayo senator

LOCAL authority budgets need to be adjusted to take into account the diverse nature of different regions in counties and the costs of providing or repairing basic infrastructure.

The comment was made by Mayo Senator Lisa Chambers in the Seanad where two colleagues raised the lack of infrastructure and funding in rural parts of the country, rural municipal districts and rural local authorities.

She commented: “We know the cost of materials has gone through the roof. It has become more expensive to do things such as road maintenance, maintenance of piers and harbours and all the different basic services that people expect from their local authorities.

“As somebody from a rural county, Co. Mayo, I can say that it is very difficult for municipal districts that have a coastline, for example, the areas of Belmullet, Achill Island and Westport. They have similar levels of funding to other municipal districts, but they have islands to take care of.

“The cost of repairing a road on an island is about three times the cost of repairing a road on the mainland.

“We need to readjust our budgets for local authorities to take into account the diverse nature of some local authorities and municipal districts where the cost of repairing the basic infrastructure that people expect to be repaired and maintained is much higher.

“The budgets for those areas often tend not to meet that difference.”