Dublin city council officials have announced a total of €30m in cuts to services because of the worsening economic situation.
Councillors have already been told of cutbacks to road and housing maintenance in their areas as well as restrictions on opening times of council facilities such as recycling centres.
City Manager John Tierney told the full monthly meeting of councillors this evening that ‘we are living in a very, very difficult situation’ and this spending cut might not be sufficient.
The meeting heard that there will a 5% cut across many services and a 50% reduction in overtime for staff.
Head of Finance Kathy Quinn said all areas are being looked at to get better value for money out of total spending of €928m.
She said because of borrowing limitations, special permission now had to be obtained from the Department of Finance for any contract worth over €5m.
And she said revenue and spending on services would be kept under monthly review.
Outside the meeting, protestors demanded assurances that the council will start work in 2010 as promised to re-house residents of St Michael's Estate affected by the collapse of public private regeneration agreements.
