Sligo County Council’s debt is reducing but still sizeable at over €9m

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

The latest Local Authority Performance Indicator Report from the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC), Ireland’s independent statutory body responsible for overseeing the performance of the local government sector, has been released giving an interesting insight in the workings of and challenges faced by local authorities nationwide.

The report gives on indication of how local authorities are performing under a number of different categories. It reveals that Sligo County Council’s debt has decreased by over €8m since 2020 but was still in excess of €9m at the end of 2024.

The detailed report analyses how local authorities’ deliver for their communities under the following headings: housing; roads; water; waste/environment; planning; fire services; library service/recreation; youth/community; corporate; finance and economic development.

The housing section of the report focuses on areas such as vacancy; time taken for a property to be re-tenanted and the cost involved in that process and also reveals the number of houses that have been retrofitted and the savings that has resulted in.

A deeper look at the findings of the report reveals there were 2,275 dwellings in the ownership of Sligo County Council on January 1, 2024. During the course of 2024 an additional 54 dwellings were constructed or acquired while 16 dwellings owned by the local authority were sold.

The vacancy rate for dwellings owned by Sligo County Council stood at 1.39% at the end of 2024. The lowest vacancy rates nationally were recorded in Laois (0.8%), Wexford (0.94%), Westmeath (0.94%) while seven other authorities, including Sligo County Council, recorded figures less than 2%.

As well as developing and acquiring new housing stock, local authorities nationwide have been attempting to modernise the existing stock by retrofitting them. A total of 45 dwellings were retrofitted by Sligo County Council last year, resulting in a total energy saving of 651.8 megawatt hours (MWH). The figures in this category vary considerably nationwide. For example just seven dwellings were retrofitted in Co Roscommon last year while 160 were retrofitted in Donegal.

The report also crunches the numbers in terms of how long a dwelling is left unoccupied before it is re-tenanted with average times varying considerably across the country.

The average wait time for a dwelling to be re-tenanted in Sligo stood at 17.14 weeks which compares favourably to the 61.55 week wait in Kerry. The cost expended in Sligo getting the dwellings re-tenanted in 2024 was €28,764.47. Neighbouring counties saw a lower figure in that category with the average cost in Mayo coming in at €18,528.04 while it was even lower in Roscommon, €14,668.76.

The issue of roads was also assessed and analysed in the report although it is important to note that NOAC data relates solely to regional and local roads and does not include national routes.

The report reveals that during the course of 2024, 9.1km of regional road was strengthened at a cost of €1,984,357 throughout Co Sligo. The average unit cost of road strengthening in Sligo for the period was €32.58/m2. In Co Donegal 26km of road was strengthened during 2024 at a total cost of €7,021347 which equates to an average cost of €39.99/m2. There was arguably better value for money to be got in Leitrim where 14.4km of road was strengthened at a cost of €2,101,482 which equates to €22.86/m2.

A total of 14.5km of regional road was resealed during 2024 at a cost of €462,892, while a total of 67.7km of local road (primary, secondary and tertiary) was strengthened during 2024 at a cost of €6,096,543. There was also 87.7km of local road resealed during 2024 at a cost of €1,758201.

The roads section of the report also revealed that when it comes to paying motor tax, Sligo residents are more likely than many other parts of the country to complete the process in person rather than online. In Kildare 91% of motor tax transactions were dealt with online compared to 78% in Sligo and 73% in Roscommon.

Since the establishment of Irish Water in 201 many of the public supply functions of local authorities have been taken over by the utility. However, local authorities still have functions in certain areas including private supplies.

The report reveals 97.91% of drinking water in private schemes is in compliance with statutory requirements.

The current role of the Local Authority Sector is the enforcement of the waste collection permit conditions and the “Presentation of Waste” bye-laws. The Bye-laws require the correct management of waste through a waste collection service or approved methods such as civic amenity sites and bin sharing.

The NOAC report reveals 12,255 (46%) households in Sligo availed of a three bin service offered by a licensed operator. In Co Mayo 21,015 (40%) households availed of the service while in Leitrim the figure was 9,521 (70%).

In terms of pollution, Sligo scored well, although there is room for improvement. No areas of the county were reported to be significantly or grossly polluted while just 6% was found to be moderately polluted. 61% of the county was found to be slightly polluted, a relatively high number but not as high as the 98% recorded in Leitrim under this category. 34% of the county was deemed to be litter free or unpolluted.

Under the planning section of the report it is revealed 15 planning decisions made by Sligo County Council were the subject of an appeal decided upon during the course of 202. Out of the 15 cases, 66% of cases confirmed, either with or without variation of the plan, the decision made by the local authority.

There was a considerable variation in these figure nationwide with 80% of cases in Mayo confirming the decision of the local authority while in Co Laois that figure was just 11%.

The cost per capita of providing the fire service was higher in 2024 than in 2023 in 26 local authorities and lower in just one, Sligo. The per capita cost of the fire service in 2023 in Sligo was €57.06 which reduced to €52.05 the following year, a reduction of 8.78%

A look at the figures recorded in neighbouring counties shows the a significant variation in the cost per capita of providing the fire service. In Mayo the cost is €70.75; Leitrim €82.86 and Roscommon €39.48.

The fire service section of the report also detailed the wait time for the fire department to attend the scene of an incident. In Sligo in 37.88% of cases in respect of fire, the first attendance is at the scene with 10 minutes. That figure jumps to 51.22% for the first attendance arriving at the scene after 10 minutes but within 20 minutes.

The average number of library visits per head of population in 2024 was 3 which equates to 15,460,242 visits.

In Sligo the number of library visits per head of population for the local authority area per the 2022 census was slightly below the national average at 2.28. Throughout the county 259,758 items were borrowed by library users throughout 2024 while there were 0.21 active library members per head of population.

The cost of operating a library service was analysed on a county by county basis by dividing figures from the financial statement by the population of the local authority. In Sligo this came to €40.59 which is a higher figure than neighbours Mayo (€33.77), Donegal (€30.42) but lower than the likes of Longford (€60.80), Clare (€51.82) and Leitrim (€55.03).

Some local authorities while welcoming the €4 book fund target, explained that book storage is a challenge and therefore they cannot add to their current level of stock without putting in place additional storage facilities.

Comhairle na nÓg have been giving young people a voice on the development of local policies and services in each of the 31 local authorities since 2002. It provides young people with a voice in decision-making nationally through Dáil na nÓg (National Youth Parliament), Seanad na nÓg, the National Youth Assembly of Ireland and Government consultations on national policy.

Nationally, the percentage of schools involved in the local youth/comhairle na nóg scheme is 65.4%. In Sligo that figure jumps to 84.62% while in Galway county the figure is 40%, Cavan (100%), Mayo (59%), Leitrim (85%) and Meath (73%).

Eight local authorities reported a reduction in staff numbers in 2024 - Carlow, Donegal, Mayo, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford City and County and Wexford with some local authorities such as Leitrim reporting that retaining staff is proving to be challenging with other local authorities sometimes the destination for departing staff. Interestingly, there is no such problem in Co Cavan where retention of staff is said not to be a problem as its proximity to Northern Ireland makes it attractive to staff who can earn higher wages.

A strong online presence is essential for every kind of business and that is equally true for the local authorities. The NOAC report reveals total page views of local authority websites in 2024 was 65.13 million, a decline of over 3.66 million views on the 2023 figure of 68.79 million.

The per capita total page views of local authority’s websites in 2024 was also revealed with Sligo County Councils’ website receiving 13.46 page views. Elsewhere around the country some of the page views were Kilkenny (22.3), Waterford (20.94), Mayo (10.04) and Leitrim (4.46).

Five local authorities showed a deficit on the Revenue Account at the end of 2024 and there were six in 2023, seven in 2022, eight in 2021, and 11 in 2020. Of those that were also in deficit in 2023, Donegal, Mayo, Offaly and Sligo continued to further reduce their deficit in 2024.

The average national collection level of commercial rates for 2024 is 90.4% compared to 88.8% in 2023. Sligo, 74%, is among the counties with the lowest collection level of commercial rates along with Leitrim (79%) and Donegal (80%).

Sligo (70%) also features on the list of counties with the lowest collection of housing loans during 2024. The average national collection level was 87.5%, a 2% rise on 85.5% in 2023.

In relation to collections, the report states, “NOAC welcomes the progress and efforts made by many authorities to improve collections. These sources of income make an important contribution to funding local services and for providing match funding for grant applications in many cases. However, it is clear that not all local authorities are addressing collection levels in the three areas of commercial rates, rent and annuities and housing loans, with some having unacceptably low rates, a more targeted approach is needed in these authorities.

"NOAC encourages local authorities to address the issue of arrears and to put payment plans in place where appropriate.”

The balance sheets of the respective local authorities from the past number of years are also analysed. The report reveals that while Sligo County Council’s debt has reduced considerably it remains the biggest debt of all local authorities.

The cumulative surplus deficit balance at 31/12/2020 in the revenue account from the income and expenditure account was €-17,454,453. The accounts for the year ending 2024 show that figure has reduced to €-9,251,455.

Economic Development indicators cover the number of jobs created, trading online vouchers, the number of mentoring recipients, tourism and expenditure on local economic development per head of population.

The number of jobs created with assistance from the Local Enterprise Office during 2024 per 100,000 of population in Sligo was 103.99 while the number of participants who received mentoring during 2024 per 100,000 of population was 632.5.