Legal costs arising from High Court cases which Clare County Council is contesting are contributing towards the council's deteriorating financial situation, it emerged yesterday.
In a report put before members at the council's September meeting, the council's head of finance, Mr Niall Barrett, said he had provided €250,000 towards legal fees from the court cases relating to traveller accommodation this year.
The expenditure is part of a worsening financial situation for the council and yesterday councillors expressed their concern over the local authority's current financial status.
After receiving two separate financial reports at the September meeting, Ms Patricia McCarthy said yesterday that the situation was "frightening".
Mr Barrett told members in the recently published Annual Financial Statement for 2001 that the "challenge now is to bring stability to the council's finances as soon as possible".
In an attempt to address the situation, the council is to hold a special meeting next Monday to discuss what can be done.
Mr P.J. Kelly (FF) said yesterday: "I warned of this possibility as the council continued to indulge in excessive and unapproved expenditure," while Mr Martin Lafferty said "it is now up to the council administration to address the over-expenditure".
Mr Kelly made his comment after it was revealed that the council's debit balance in its capital account had almost doubled in the first six months of this year to €13 million at the end of June.Out of the current €13 million debit balance, Mr Barrett said the council would pay in excess of €153,000 overdraft interest this year.
Along with the debit balance on the council's capital account, the local authority's debit balance on its revenue account more than doubled to €7 million at the end of last year. Mr Barrett said the rate of deterioration on the debit balance could not continue.
On top of the debit balances recorded in the council's capital and revenue accounts, Mr Barrett said the council would overspend this year by €3.7 million, due to expenditure being 58 per cent of the estimate for the first six months of this year.