At the annual budget meeting of Wicklow County Council Cllr Derek Mitchell asked for a wages breakdown. This showed that the €16m spent on revenue wages was only being reduced by 1% while the Capital items wages reduced 25% to €1m. The Manager explained that capital projects had dried up and staff had been transferred to Revenue items.

‘I believe that the Council should have an efficiency gain of 5%, given the reduction in staff numbers, and this would allow a Rates reduction of 6%. We are always being told that work can’t be done because staff have left and I am very disappointed that we only get a 1% efficiency gain on the Councils largest expense. Business is under huge pressure and most have substantially reduced cost and I want to see more effort to reduce Commercial Rates’.