Council shops for best bargains

STAFF numbers in Limerick City Council have fallen from a high of 576 in 2004 to 450 in 2012.But other costs also have to be reduced, the Limerick local authorities manager, Conn Murray said in his annual report on the city budget for 2013. He told city councillors that there were a number of non-payroll costs and unavoidable increases in the City Council’s expenditure for 2013. “I have made every effort to maintain expenditure in critical areas. In particular insurance, public lighting, energy, overdraft, loan financing and provision for rates refunds and bad debts provide a significant drain on resources,” he said.

To help cut costs, Limerick City Council is participating in national tenders for electricity, land-lines, mobile phones, stationary, paper, gas and bulk-fuel. The council is also  actively using national procurement systems such as LAQuotes and e-Tenders in an attempt to reduce non-payroll costs.
And this year, there will be a staff member assigned to find the best bargains in terms of non-payroll costs.
Payroll budgets, including non-core payroll costs and staff numbers, will continue to be examined during 2013 in order to identify further savings where possible, the manager said.
He added that his will be done in line with the Public Service Agreement.
“It should be noted that Limerick City Council continued to reduce its work-force in recent years through introduction of new and more efficient work practices, and this has accelerated in recent years.  Since 2004 to date, there has been a 21 per cent reduction in whole-time-equivalents staffing numbers,” said Mr Murray.