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‘Does the executive think they can do what they like when there’s only another month left for the council?’ – Mayor Olive Corcoran

"Does the executive think they can do what they like when there's only another month left for the council?" Mayor Olive Corcoran said in dismay following this week's penultimate meeting of Fermoy Town Council. She was speaking after discovering that designated amenity grant funds had been moved to pay off their overdraft.

It all began innocently enough with the Mayor asking near the end of the meeting if the council was going to proceed as she'd requested and purchase a stand-alone slide for older children for the town park and a gazebo.

"It would be a great purchase," Cllr Pa O'Driscoll said and Cllr Colette Dolan-Moore agreed. The €3,000 cost for the gazebo wasn't budgeted for, town manager Niall Healy told them. Cllr Dolan-Moore said there was money left over from the park redevelopment budget. The Mayor agreed, saying it was available and that it would be very wrong not to spend it on the park. She hoped it wasn't like a previous matter they'd discussed at the meeting where they'd learned that money allocated to the County Council by the NRA for road reinstatement and footpath works in Fermoy town following the byass, had been spent elsewhere.

The town manager explained that the town council is in an overdraft situation and that some of the capital monies had already been used in other areas. Cllr Seamus Coleman, who'd got up to leave the meeting at that stage, promptly sat back down.

"It's my understanding that development contributions can't be used for other things, its ringfenced," he said. Cllr Dolan-Moore insisted the money was designated for the park redevelopment and all of it should be used for that purpose. The town manager said the money wasn't in the bank. "Where is it?" an incredulous Cllr Coleman asked. The town manager explained that there had been some 25 projects some of which had serious debit balances. Some were in credit. The totality of the account is that it is in arrears, he told them.

Councillors Coleman and Corcoran asked him how they could use the money to balance another account. "We're in a debit situation," the manager stated simply. After further protestations he agreed to check and give them a clearer account of the situation at their final meeting next month.

Afterwards Cllr Coleman pointed out that he'd spent quite a significant amount of time during the budget procedure questioning the financial situation of the council. "At no time until tonight was there any reference to the need to move designated amenity funds to balance the books," he pointed out.

"We actually, even after tonight, still have no clue what the money was used for. This is wrong and the need for transparency is vital in the running of local authorities. There seems to be a unwritten rule of telling the elected reps as little as possible in order to avoid answering questions."

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