At the December meeting of Waterford County Council, Sinn Fein’s Cllr Brendan Mansfield proposed an amendment to the budget in a bid to ‘save €100,000’. The amendment included a reduction of €10,000 to the Mayor’s Allowance, cutting conference expenses by half, doing away with the Mayor and the Special Policing Committee’s Allowance. The proposed amendments were defeated by 20 votes to three with Cllrs Mansfield, Pat Fitzgerald (SF) and Joe Conway (I) voting in favour.

Cllr Pat Daly (FF) said he was glad to see there would be no increase in rates. There were a lot of businesses in the county that employed one, two or three workers and every penny counted. Future budgets should be looking further at reducing rates.