Donegal County Council may once again reject its Budget for 2014 after Fianna Fail said tonight they will still not support it.
Scenes from last week’s council meeting
The council will meet again today tomorrow in a last ditch attempt to agree a €138M Budget for the coming year.
The Budget proposal was defeated by 15 votes to 13 last week after three days and 21 adjournments when Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Independent John Campell rejected it.
It was hoped councillors could reach some kind of agreement on the Budget when it meets tomorrow.
But this evening Fianna Fail cast serious doubt on any hopes of a resolution when they said they could not accept the Budget in its present form.
Once again they cited the issue of Irish Water as not being a good deal for the people of Donegal.
The council’s eleven Fianna Fail councillors issued a statement tonight saying they are standing firm on their decision that the current Budget is not a good deal for Donegal.
“We will continue to maintain our stand on behalf of the Donegal Public and send a clear message to the Management of this Council as well as Minister Hogan that the people of this County have suffered enough and will no longer accept these savage cuts from this Government.
“Having always taken a view that Irish Water was not going to offer a fair deal for the Households across our County, our position has been reaffirmed in recent days with many of the revelations which have come to light.
“This in effect shows that the lack of information and difficulties in attaining contact from Irish Water has been a smoke screen and an audacious attempt to push ahead with a revenue generating mechanism called Irish Water. Minister Hogan rammed through legislation before Christmas where all of the opposition TD’s walked out of the Daíl, he and his Government are neither prepared nor willing to listen to a view point other than his own or his party’s which flies in the face of democracy.
“The Fianna Fail group are prepared to take a stand in an attempt to raise the issues which we face on a daily basis and try to force this government to give a better deal to Donegal and it’s citizens.”
The group said despite its continued strong representations in regards to being allocated additional funding for roads and housing within Donegal, it is unfortunate that their requests have gone unanswered.
They added that they cannot therefore accept this and must ensure that the needs of the Donegal Public are listened to and delivered upon for this reason they are taking a stand.
“We are asking Fine Gael, Labour and those independents who are supporting the Government to join us in taking a stand in appealing to the Minister to consider our concerns and the needs of the people of Donegal.
“We want to be a position to provide essential services to the people of our County and therefore we ask Minister Hogan to acknowledge the Democratic Decision that will be taken here today and ensure that Democracy and not Dictatorship rules our County.”