METROPOLITAN councillors have accused Limerick City and County Council of “short-changing” the communities they represent.
At the opening of this month’s Metropolitan area meeting, Council members were asked to adopt the Draft Budgetary Plan for 2026 General Municipal Allocation (GMA), but decided to defer the item until they could air their grievances at a later date.
Fine Gael councillor Dan McSweeney took the view that “honest and open conversations” were needed after a private briefing from the Council executive, held before Monday’s area meeting.
Cllr McSweeney also expressed his disappointment that Mayor John Moran, who is not obliged to attend district meetings, had not been present at their briefing.
“We are being short-changed. Over the course of this Council, this district will be short-changed by €908,500 in relation to all the other districts across the city and county. We had a good increase last year by the Mayor, which I complimented him for, but I was of the understanding that the increase would continue until we were brought on a levelling up with other elected members,” the City West representative commented.
Cllr McSweeney said it is “completely unacceptable” that the communities he represents are being “short-changed”, claiming that “there was a commitment last year that the levelling up would continue but there’s been no further increase”.
“I think it is extremely disappointing that at the start of Budget 2026 that this is how the Council is embarking.”
Cllr Sarah Kiely (FG) also expressed her disappointment that the levelling up of the Metropolitan District GMA has not continued. She warned that with 21 councillors in its ranks, city Council members have “the balance of power” and would use it to make sure their communities are looked after.
Cllr Peter Doyle (FG) suggested that the GMA should be based on the last census in 2022, which indicated that 55 per cent of Limerick’s population is living in the Metropolitan area.
“I think we’re entitled to fair play here, and, I’d like to add, the largest area in the city population is Limerick City East, so you might consider giving us the largest allocation,” Cllr Doyle said.
Fianna Fail councillor Catherine Slattery was also of the opinion that the GMA allocation was not divvied up fairly between the districts.
“We’re not being listened to. It’s not fair and it’s not fairly distributed,” Cllr Slattery opined.
Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan took the view that one of the few reserve functions councillors still have is passing a budget each year. She agreed that the item must be deferred until a special meeting could be called.
Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon (FF) said that Council members believed when the city and county councils were amalgamated that there were going to be nice savings, which, he says, have not come to pass.
“Constantly at Council meetings we’re hearing from our country cousins that they’re being under-changed. Now, if you look at the grants that come from the government, most of them are actually going out the county. I think we have a disadvantage here,” Cllr O’Hanlon insisted.
“We have 21 councillors here, which is the majority of the full Council, and I would like to see the full Metro Council sticking together on this because the money is not coming to the communities we represent.”