Residents Associations
The members considered the following motion in the name of Councillor McLoughlin Healy.
That this municipal district committee ask the executive to increase the proposed allocation
for local Residential Associations in the municipal district budget, in order to bring the
allocations for Residential Associations in the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District in line
with those allocated by the Naas Municipal District.
The Deputy Mayor confirmed this matter had been dealt with during the discussion on item 4
relating to the Draft Budget Plan for 2022 for the Municipal District.
Cllr McLoughlin Healy proposed an amendment to her motion as follows:
That this municipal district committee ask the executive to increase the proposed allocation
for local Residential Associations in the LPT allocations, in order to bring the allocations for
Residential Associations in the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District in line with those
allocated by the Naas Municipal District.
The motion was not seconded therefore the amendment fell
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To discuss the Kildare-Newbridge Draft Budget Plan 2022.
Ms Millane informed the members that in accordance with Section 58 of the Local
Government Reform Act 2014 the draft General Municipal Allocation (GMA) for Kildare
County Council was €15,990,728 for 2022. She explained that it was a reserved function of
the members of a municipal district to adopt the draft budgetary plan either with or without
amendment and that the Chief Executive may take account of the draft budgetary plan, as
presented to the members of that municipal district, without amendment if they do not adopt
a draft budgetary plan.
She then went through the report highlighting the difficulty with the pay parking estimate. Ms
Millane also advised that the reallocation of line items was a matter for the members.
The members raised the following points:
There was a need for trend reporting to see comparison to previous years.
• A description was required for festival grants as it was unclear what could be applied
for.
• They would like to see a higher allocation to heritage centres.
• The benefits of the roads allocation can be seen in the various improvements.
• How was the Residents Association allocation calculated
• There was an undertaking last year that heritage item would be reviewed and that
Kildare Newbridge were at a disadvantage. Did the review happen?
• Junefest needed the grant funding it had been previously provided.
• There needed to be an increase in the amount for Resident Associations. There
appeared to be huge discrepancies in the amounts allocated to different Resident
Associations and the amounts allocated between Municipal Districts.
• Roads allocation should not be reduced. The whole area of Residents Associations
and Tidy Towns needed to be addressed.
• Was the reduction in the Pay Parking estimate a result of the 30 mins free parking or
the loss of spaces to Public Realm projects
• The line item for public toilets was no longer listed.
• There was no equity per house for the Residents Associations. Adding funds from the
Roads allocation would greatly benefit the Residents Associations in the Municipal
District who were very underfunded in comparison to Naas Municipal District
• What was the extent of funding required for Residents Associations for new estates
and those being taken in charge.
• There should have been a briefing meeting before any decisions were made.
• There was no discrepancy in the amounts allocated between Municipal Districts as
there were differing requirements across the different Municipal Districts eg Naas has
less rural roads than Kildare Newbridge.
Ms Millane responded with the following points:
• She would review including trend reporting for next year
• Members should be looking at the overall allocation rather than individual lines.
• Distribution of retained LPT is for the members to decide.
• There was no increase in the rates of LPT in relation to Heritage and Tidy Towns.
Hopefully the baseline would change for 2023 but members should lobby their TDs to
make sure that the additional funding was secured.
• The budget line entry for public toilets has been subsumed into Roads Budget
• With regard to the reference made to briefing meetings, the national budget needed to
be finalised before figures could be circulated to the members. Any figures released
prior to this would have been vastly reduced.
The District Engineer advised that footpath and road upgrades, which are currently very far
behind, are primarily paid for from pay parking and supported by LPT. The Roads allocation
would never be sufficient for all the works required and requested by the members.
Mr D McDermott advised that details could be provided of which Residents Associations
received funding, how much they received and the purpose. Figures were given as per
applications received. These figures worked out at €2.53 per private house and €12 per local
authority house.
Councillor McLoughlin Healy referenced her motion at No 38 on the agenda and proposed to
reduce line item B04 (local road maintenance excluding pay parking) by €20,000 and increase Residents Association Grants by €20,000. This was seconded by Councillor Power.
The proposal was put to the members.
Resolved on the proposal of Councillor McLoughlin Healy, seconded by Councillor Power,
with five members voting in favour and six members voting against the proposal was
defeated.
Councillor Duffy proposed to accept the Draft Budget as presented, this was seconded by
Councillor Stafford. The proposal was put to the members with 8 voting in favour and 3
voting against the draft budget was accepted without amendment.
Resolved on the proposal of Councillor Duffy, seconded by Councillor Stafford with 8
members voting in favour and 3 members voting against the Draft Budget Plan was
approved without amendments.