For the fourth time in three weeks Tralee councillors have voted by 10 to one to reject the budget prepared by management and are now the first local authority of 2004 to face dissolution, writes Anne Lucey.
The Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen, was yesterday awaiting written communication from Tralee Town Council, a spokesman for his Department said.
He can now grant an extension of time to allow the councillors a further chance to adopt a budget or appoint a commissioner/administrator and disband the council.
Last year two local authorities, Sligo County Council and Dublin City Council, were given extensions and eventually passed their budgets and struck a rate.
The budget would have seen the council dispense with waste collection after March because of a falling customer base and rising costs.
Charges associated with the Jeanie Johnston replica famine ship and other tourism projects begun in the early 1990s have escalated, and the council is now paying out €700,000 annually on projects such as the county museum, a canal and a steam train.
There were also high costs associated with benchmarking.
Councillors have been highly critical of the fact that Tralee has been left with the burden of payments on national projects of benefit to everyone such as the Jeanie Johnston and on county projects such as the museum.
Repayments on the famine ship alone, which the council agreed to bail out two years ago, to prevent it from liquidation, stand at €235,000 for the next 15 years.
A last-minute appeal to Mr Cullen for an "extraordinary" payment on account of the Jeanie Johnston failed.
All councils have this year been warned in a circular from the Department to stick to core activities.
Faced with a deficit of at least €500,000 at the end of 2003, management warned that it could not provide a waste collection service after March.
A motion by the Tralee mayor, Cllr Terry O'Brien (Labour) to suspend refuse collection for nine months and pay private contractors to serve the council's waiver-scheme customers and adopt the budget was narrowly defeated.
Councillors including Ms Maeve Spring (Lab) argued that the 1,100 customers who depended on the council's waiver and weekly payment scheme rents would be left high and dry.
Meanwhile, the Rose of Tralee Festival was also holding talks on its future last night.
Faced with debts of almost €1 million, this year is a make-or-break one for the festival.