Sligo County Council Draft Budget 2014 Comhairle Chontae Shligigh For year ended 31st December, 2014 Table of Contents Manager’s Report 2 Head of Finance 10 LGF General Purpose Grant Allocations 2014 13 Directors of Services 15 Overall Summary Statement 29 Division A: Housing and Building 33 Division B: Roads, Transportation and Safety 41 Division C: Water Services 55 Division D: Development Management 61 Division E: Environmental Services 71 Division F: Recreation and Amenity 79 Division G: Agriculture, Education, Health and Welfare 89 Division H: Miscellaneous Services 93 Division J: Central Management Charges 93 Three Year Capital Programme 95 Report on Development Contribution Scheme 98 Statutory Tables A-F for Sligo County Council Annual Budget and Determination of the Annual Rate of Valuation for the Local Financial Year Ending on the 31st Day of December 2014 101 Appendix 1 - Summary of Central Management Charge 131 Supplementary Tables 132 1 Manager’s Report MANAGER’S REPORT TO: THE CATHAOIRLEACH AND EACH MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL I enclose for your consideration the Draft Budget for Sligo County Council for the financial year 2014 as required under section 102 of the Local Government Act 2001 and have also consulted with the Council’s Corporate policy Group as outlined under section 133(4) (a). The total projected expenditure for 2014 is estimated at €50.5m (2013 - €56.2m). This represents a decrease of €5.7m or 10% on the corresponding figure for 2013. The budgetary process for the purpose of preparing the draft Budget 2014 has indeed been very challenging. Not only is the general economic outlook still in a difficult and uncertain state, the Council has had to plan the budget around the impact of the transfer of Water Services to Irish Water and the changes about to happen to the make-up of Local Authorities in the context of the Reform Agenda – “Putting People First”. General Economic Background On a national level the general economic outlook for 2014 is again very difficult and while there still is a lot of uncertainty around there are encouraging signs that the economy as a whole is stabilising. The clearest signal of what is happening this year in the economy is the exit of the Troika and the small but significant growth upwards in employment. Unemployment stood at 14.7% in 2010. It peaked in 2012 at 15.1% but has now dropped to 12.8%. Beginning with the last quarter of 2012, we have now seen three consecutive quarters where employment grew by around 0.5% per quarter with a view that the growth for the year could be close to 2%. This is further reinforced by a fall in Live Register numbers for the last three quarters of 2013. For 2014, much will depend on what happens internationally. The forecasts for Eurozone suggests a return to significant growth with a forecast for Ireland of around 2.7% of GNP mainly due to the prevalence of the multinational sector while the existing weaknesses in the domestic demand and output will still remain a challenge. As the Council obtains most of its income from Central Government the difficulties faced by Government over the past five years have inevitably been reflected in continued reduced funding allocations to the Council. This has also coincided at a local level with significant reductions in income from business activity and commercial rates. Many businesses continue to suffer from weak demand with the retail sector being particularly badly hit. Local Property Tax (LPT) / Household Charge The Household Charge was introduced in 2012 with a charge of €100 levied on each house. Sligo recorded very high collections of the Household Charge coming in 4th highest when compared on an all county basis. At the end of October 2013, a total of €2,288,440 was collected in Sligo for this charge with a collection rate of 85.48% and a total number of 25,281 households levied. This was then replaced in July 2013 by the introduction of the Local Property Tax (LPT) on all domestic dwellings in the State. The exchequer receipts for LPT at a national level at the end of October 2013 were €215million. The LPT is collected by the Revenue Commissioners and will be distributed to local authorities from 2015 onwards and used to fund local services supplementing the Local Government Fund. The compliance rate for County Sligo is 90% with a total amount of LPT receipts for Sligo totalling €2.4million collected at the end of October 2013. 2 Sligo County Council Comhairle Chontae Shligigh Draft Budget 2014 For year ended 31st December 2014 Manager’s Report Local Authorities are also levied for LPT on their social Housing stock. The 2013 half year liability for Sligo Co. Co. for the LPT for 1,128 houses (social housing stock including exemptions) is €46,620. For 2014, the LPT liability will be €92,880 for 1,122 houses (6 properties now not liable as they were sold under the TP Scheme). Current indications are that in future years the determination of the level of this new Property Tax will include a discretionary element to be exercised by Council Members at local council level. The precise details of how this would operate are not available at this time but any such provision would be welcome and would be an important discretionary power for Council Members who would in effect be enabled to raise local taxes for worthwhile local projects and initiatives as is commonplace in other modern democracies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people in the county who paid the charge and who in so doing will be supporting the maintenance of local services despite the difficulty this might have posed for them. While the new LPT tax is incurred in respect of a liable property which is based on that property’s value, since 2009 Local Authorities have benefitted from income derived from the Non Principle Private Residence Charge (NPPR). The NPPR Charge was incurred on the basis of a flat rate of €200.00 per liable (second home) property per annum. The NPPR charge will no longer be charged for the years after 2013, but outstanding liabilities and payments will still be collected. Payroll Costs One of the largest elements of cost to the Council in the Budget is Payroll costs. Since the onset of the current recession we have implemented a strict programme of cost reduction in this area and the only posts we have filled have been essential posts in areas of public safety such as the Fire Service and in areas where staff costs are fully funded by external agencies. From September 2008 to 31/12/13 a total of 166 staff will have left both councils, reducing staffing numbers from 631 to 465; this is a reduction of 26.3%. Since 2008, staff numbers in Sligo County Council have reduced from 477 to 369 at 31/12/2013, a reduction of 108 or 22.6 %. The introduction of a Voluntary Redundancy Scheme in Sept 2013 will result in a further reduction in staff numbers from March of 2014 with 14 staff having opted for the scheme at a total cost to the County Council of just less than €427,000. For 2014, we anticipate payroll savings of approx €320,000 will accrue as a result of the Voluntary Redundancy Scheme together with a nett saving of approx €60,000 due to naturally occurring retirements. Overtime working has been reduced to an absolute minimum such as essential emergencies, public safety situations, severe weather duties and some weather related work on the road restoration programme. Work is currently ongoing in relation to a Workforce Planning exercise which will take into consideration the staff resource requirements post June 2014 (local elections and abolition of town and borough councils etc) and the situation that will result from the establishment of Irish Water and the transfer of water services from local authorities to Irish Water. The review of all allowances (such as Acting etc) is been done in the context of the workforce planning exercise and the measures that are in place under the Haddington Road Agreement. The Table below sets out the full extent of the payroll savings achieved since 2008. Pay costs were in the region of €25.1m in 2008 and is currently estimated to outturn at €19.3m for 2013. Current estimates suggest the cost for 2014 is likely to be circa €19m. The cumulative payroll savings made since 2008 amounts to circa €28m. See table below: Sligo County Council Comhairle Chontae Shligigh Draft Budget 2014 For year ended 31st December 2014 3 Manager’s Report A number of redeployments have also occurred within the past year. In total, during the year 7 no staff have redeployed or been seconded to various bodies to work on projects during the year including the Road Safety Authority, VEC and IW. Included in this figure is 3 no secondments to Irish Water with 2 no permanent appointments to Irish Water also been made from within the staff of the Council. The Council has availed of every opportunity to reduce pay costs to what can be afforded having regard to current economic conditions and the reductions that have been made in the LGF. Significant work changes/reassignments etc have arisen as a consequence of these staff reductions and generally this has been achieved by agreement by working the flexibility provisions of the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements. While there has been no disruption to services, some small reductions in the level of services have had to take place.