The Finance Minister is in Tipperary today on his first trip since the budget.
Following a meeting at the Hotel Minella in Clonmel Paschal Donoghue told Tipp FM that he was there to engage with local businesses, who help the town to thrive, and explain why certain decisions were made with regards the budget.
One issue proving contentious is the levy to fund the mica redress scheme.
When asked would this have a knock on impact for places like Tipperary and their ability to provide housing he told the newsdesk there are always risks:
“We do have to have the money in place to do it, from the estimates we’ve done we think the impact it could have on the construction of a new dwelling could be between half of one percent up to under one percent so while I do accept there is a risk there, I think the greater risk is we commit to spending additional money in the future without a clear plan about how to pay for it.”
In relation to other areas, Minister Donoghue said there will be enough money to make progress on roads in Tipperary this year.
He says the amount allocated to the Department of Transport has been increased and that will mean an increase for the Local Authority here when it comes to roads funding.
Earlier this month the Carrick-on-Suir MD reported that some projects had to be pulled from this years roads programme due to increased budgets.
However, the Minister told Tipp FM that he is confident each area locally will have enough to ‘make progress’ following this year’s budget:
“It’s always the case that we never have enough money to meet the needs of every road that happens year after year but I am confident in 2023 we will still have enough money in place to make progress and keep projects, and Senator Ahern is always raising the need to keep projects in Tipperary regularly.”
