Cork County Council has told the Government that it cannot afford to pay a €23 million wage increase due next year to its 2,500 workers.
Warning that Government cutbacks threaten significant cuts in services, the council said it would not be able to meet its extra bills, even if it decides to increase local charges sharply in January.
During a meeting last week, senior council figures told the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, that a partial payment of the benchmarking bill alone would cost it €10 million.
The council chairwoman, Ms Paula Desmond; the County Manager, Mr Maurice Moloney; and the council's financial controller, Mr Ger Power, attended the meeting in the Department of the Environment, arranged at just a day's notice.
In the Estimates, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, froze payments to local authorities at €420 million under the Local Government Fund, while funds to maintain non-national roads were cut by a total of 27 per cent.
Even allowing for the Government's financial difficulties, public sector workers are likely to have 25 per cent of the rises due to them under benchmarking backdated to December 2001.
The council's €260 million budget cannot meet the 4 per cent rise due to its staff under the Programme for Partnership and Fairness, the Minister was told.
Ms Desmond, said local authorities throughout the country face higher wage bills, but they had no control over wage rises.
"It is completely and totally unacceptable that central government can agree a national pay round and not give local authorities the resources to pay it," said the Labour councillor.
"Even if you were to double refuse charges, you are still only talking about seven or eight million. Extra planning charges, for instance, could restrict development," she said.
"If local authorities had the ability to raise funds locally you could tell local authorities to pay it.
"But we don't have such powers, and we are not going to get them in any reform next year," she told The Irish Times.
