Councillors call for tripling of ward funds

CITY councillors have called for a tripling of almost €250,000 annual ward funds ahead of the city boundary extension to help them cope with larger areas.

Councillor Ken O’Flynn (FF) said the cityscape is due to increase in size from June and the ward funds should reflect this.

City councillors are allowed to allocate €8,000 each per year to community initiatives and projects.

“Ward funds are an enormous help to the communities that we represent,” he said. “I suggest we flag the amount of the ward funds available for next year’s budget. Now that our Council area has increased by almost three-fold, I think the funds should be increased by three times the amount so councillors can service the new parts of the city.”

Former Lord Mayor Terry Shannon echoed the call for an increase and called for a full list of each councillor’s allocation to be published every 12 months.

“€8,000 per member, while it may suffice, in terms of the present city size, we need to look at an increase. We should certainly be looking at €10,000 per member for the new City Council,” he added.

Currently, just the organisations that receive the grant and the amount they receive is published — not which councillor allocates the funds.

“This is nearly a quarter of a million of public funds and we should be transparent on who is giving what to whom,” he added.