The Chief of Executive of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council says that the Council will do everything it can "to keep rates affordable" amid the current cost of living crisis.

As the cost of living crisis continues to impact the Fermanagh community, The Impartial Reporter spoke this week with Council Chief Executive Alison McCullagh about the Council's contingency plans.

Speaking to this newspaper on Tuesday (October 18), Ms. McCullagh explained that the Council has been adversely affected by the energy crisis, with it seeing significant percentage increases on electricity and fuel.

"We're only now in the autumn so we still haven't come into the darkest times of the year, the coldest times. So our expectation is that bills will go [up] even further as they will obviously for domestic homes as well," she said.

When asked how the Council is going to finance these extra costs, Ms. McCullagh responded: "We would normally set an annual budget and that would be approved by the Council the previous February, but recognising the changes in the wider economy, the Council asked us to work on preparing a revised budget."

"We have done the initial work for that, which was considered at the committee last week, and then we'll be bringing a final revised budget to the November meeting, but we have no capacity to raise additional money in the course of a year," she added, going on to explain that the Council is going to have to find the additional costs by making "significant savings" on its own operations.

When questioned whether these "significant savings" will include the reduction of opening hours of Council facilities such as the Fermanagh Lakeland Forum and Enniskillen Castle, Ms. McCullagh said: "At this stage it is a very fine line because we also recognise that in a time of crisis that we're in, it's important that there are facilities and avenues available for people just even for mental health and wellbeing.

"While we will certainly look at all of our opening hours across our facilities, it's not our intention at this stage to seek to reduce those. That would certainly be a last resort, but it will be something that we will have to consider," she added, noting that it is a similar situation regarding Christmas festivities in the district.

"We have made the budgetary provision for [Christmas] lights, we are though having discussions at the moment with the Department for Infrastructure because we own the lights, we hang them but we avail of their power supply.

"I am aware that in some other areas there are indications that the charging model may change and we need to see if it is still affordable for us or if we need to consider a reduction in the duration of the lights or anything like that. But it's certainly not in our plans at the moment," she said, noting that the Council will evaluate this in early November.

When queried if the Council has financial reserves for emergency situations such as this cost of living crisis, Ms. McCullagh confirmed that it does have reserves but there are specific areas that this money can be spent on.

"We hope we have some scope within one of the reserve pots to be able to utilise, but the key thing we have to do is find savings just as people do in their own day to day."

Ms. McCullagh went on to note that the Council is hoping that it may be able to secure some financial support from central government, as it did at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"If we were able to get some support for energy costs, it would free us up a little in terms of our own operations as well," she said.

This newspaper asked Ms. McCullagh how rate payers will be impacted by the Council's rising costs.

"Next February we will agree the rate or the budget for the 2023/24 financial year, which will run from April to March," she said, adding: "We will be formally starting that process in November. The realities and the priorities that the Council would always set for us is, first of all, an affordable rate, one that will ensure that we can deliver as many of our services as possible, and that the rate payers will see the benefit from a Council perspective."

Commenting that it will be a "very challenging environment", she added: "Inflation as we all know is still very hard to predict. We are unclear about the impact that the cost of living crisis will have, let's say particularly on businesses.

"Certainly the priority from a Council perspective and from our members will be we recognise the crisis that we're in and that we will do everything we can to keep rates affordable," she told this newspaper.