Kilkenny council approves €7 million emergency fund for coronavirus crisis

Kilkenny County Council has agreed to make an extra €7 million available to the local authority to deal with any eventuality arising from this coronavirus crisis.

At a special scaled-down monthly meeting of Kilkenny County Council held yesterday evening, it was agreed that the council should make use of their ability to extend their overdraft facility from €13 million to €20 million.

A council spokesperson told KilkennyNow.ie: “The overdraft will just be there if we need to avail of it, we may never need too.

“We have to make sure we have the financial supports in places because naturally, our income streams are going to diminish over the coming months.

“In the interim period, we would expect national funding to come to compensate. If that support comes, there may be no need for the overdraft.

“During this period, we are going to have to work with our customers, especially our commercial rate customers and the difficulties they are going to be in, so this measure is just to ensure we have the support,” the spokesperson concluded.