Council's "debt" due to housing loans

The cost of the new county office buildings, coupled with a higher-than-average rate of building for affordable housing, as well as shared ownership loans, has left Westmeath County Council in the red to the tune of €88 million.But the figure which was published in a list in yesterday's Independent newspaper reflects "long-term borrowings" rather than a free-fall into a spiral of debt, Edward Hynes Director of Finance for Westmeath County Council has said.The report which gave details of monies owed for the 34 Irish city and county councils, showed that Westmeath had the 10th highest figure and had increased its "debt" by €18.4 million in the last year alone.The article also stated that several councils were now looking at the possibility of putting staff on a three-day week but Mr Hynes said that the Westmeath body was "not actively seeking" this substantial reduction in working hours."We are not looking to go that way at the present minute," he said. "If you look at how the figure of €88 million is made up then you can see that it is all mortgage-type loans and long-term borrowings."The borrowings are of course backed by working assets and the council will be repaid these sums over anything up to terms of 30 years. €37 million of the figure is made up from mortgage loans, €16 million is bridging loans that we have for our affordable housing stock and there is a further €1.5 million in shared ownership loans."The council offices incurred borrowings which now stand at €26 million and that loan will be repaid over a 50-year-term."Mr Hynes admitted that Westmeath County Council is suffering from the effects of budget cuts by central government and had already cut more than 40 staff from the pay roll saving upwards of €2 million this year to date."If you look at something like the Village Enhancement Scheme which cost €600,000 to run, that has been scrapped. Staff have been cut either from not being replaced after retirements or from not renewing short term contract workers."We have lost €4 million this year already from the budget given by central government and that has to be made up from somewhere."Mr Hynes also said that Westmeath County Council had given a higher number of housing loans than neighbouring counties such as Meath and Offaly which was reflected in the lower debt figures recorded for both.