Galway Bay fm newsroom - Loughrea area councillors have passed their budget for 2020, which means all the municipal districts have passed their budgets, in advance of the county council's budget meeting in a few weeks time.
In Loughrea, the envisaged expenditure for the district will be just over 9 million euro, up 2.2 million euro on 2019.
The district has grown significantly in recent years and now includes the Gort/Kinvara municipal area.
The draft budget was hotly debated by the MDC with many voicing concerns that not enough money had been allocated given the size of the district.
Road funding has increased by 20 percent to 8.1 million in the new budget, but the district now has an extra 220km of roads.
Councillors Ivan Canning, Pat Hynes and Jimmy McClearn expressed reservations that the roads budget wouldn't stretch to poor roads in Kiltormer, New Inn and Eyrecourt.
The biggest drop in funding is for "Maintenance of Traveller Accommodation Units," by seven thousand euro.
Fine Gael Councillor Moegie Maher expressed his frustration at spending money on Traveller accommodation maintenance each year saying the sites are "filthy again 12 months later."
He proposed more cuts to the funding but was advised against it by the finance committee, as well as Councillors Shane Curley and Jimmy McClearn; who said the committee had a duty to help vulnerable people.
More generally, Councillor Curley proposed a motion to postpone the budget until the members were furnished with more details and was seconded by Councillor Kinnane.
However, the motion to pass the budget was carried and Councillor Maher said afterwards he was satisfied enough information was presented to the MDC.
