Leitrim County Council approves a €64.1m budget for 2026

Leitrim County Council has today adopted a revenue budget for the financial; year 2026, which shows a significant increase in scale now reaching €64.1m for the delivery of a wide array of services and initiatives for the County in 2026.

The priorities for the Council, in developing both the Budget and the ambitious 6 year Capital Investment Programme of €650m are aligned with the Corporate Plan goals of: Growing our Businesses and Economy; Sustaining our communities; Enriching our Places and Environment and Enhancing our Organisation. Key areas for investment include economic development and regeneration, housing, tourism and promotion of the County, Heritage, Culture and the Arts, enhancing our towns and villages, Climate Action and Environment, Financial Management and Governance and organisational development.

The framing of the Capital Investment Programme aims to build on the growth trajectory achieved for the County and as proven in the recent census, which has shown a growing population and growing working population. The County is increasingly recognised as a vibrant, well presented and pleasant location to live, work, invest and visit with an excellent profile of businesses and strong award-winning communities.

The Chief Executive of the Council, Joseph Gilhooly outlined that “Leitrim County Council plays and must continue to play a lead role in driving the progression of the County if our core vision of an ambitious, thriving, vibrant, sustainable and connected Leitrim with opportunity for everyone, is to be achieved.

A central pillar to our ambition is the continued delivery of the Councils multi-annual capital investment programme. It is positive to see that opportunities to continue to secure funding inputs of scale for worthwhile projects and investments in the County remains very real. This Local Authority will strive to continue accessing such funding opportunities to achieve our mission of an ambitious, thriving, vibrant, sustainable and connected Leitrim with opportunity for everyone. This budget is prudently framed to ensure that the organisation is equipped to build on the achieved progression of the County and to also sustain the organisation while making provision for emerging matters such as climate action.”

The Cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council Cllr Paddy Farrell welcomed both the annual budget and capital investment programme stating: “I am pleased to see that the Capital Investment programme continues to take a longer, 6 year, view as this demonstrates the desire of the Council to develop and promote Leitrim as and attractive place to live, work in and visit. The budget and the Capital Investment programme puts this Council on sound financial footing that provides for adequate forward planning for substantial capital projects which span multiple years. The Capital Investment plan has been a feature of Budgets in Leitrim over the past number of years, and it has brought to fruition a large number of projects in varying scale which have developed the county and added to the lives of the citizens of this county. In this context, I look forward to the continued success of the plan in the coming years.”