By Cianna McNally

Members of Monaghan Town Council deferred a decision on whether or not to increase the pay-parking charges in the town until the end of the year at their June monthly meeting on Monday, 21 June.

The issue of increasing fees had arisen at the May meeting of the town council because of the Government decision to implement VAT at 21 per cent on the income generated for the local authority by the pay-parking system. Figures given to councillors at Monday’s meeting from Town Manager, Declan Nelson, showed that an increase in short-term parking charges from 50c – 60c an hour and raising long-stay fees from €1 - €1.20 would take in most of the €37,865 which the town council would be liable to pay VAT on between now and the end of the year and would leave only a small shortfall.

The Town Manager recommended that the increases would be introduced immediately but the councillors felt differently with Independent councillor Seamus Treanor describing it as “lunacy.” Cllr Treanor believed that the town was starting to show some economic recovery and advised the Manager to hold off introducing the charges until January. Fine Gael councillor David Maxwell expressed fear that trade in the town would be damaged but stated that the public should know that Monaghan town was the cheapest place to park in the county. Sinn Féin’s Sean Conlon felt it was important to put the message out that Monaghan Town Council’s “hands were tied” with regard to the VAT decision as it was an EU directive.

It was agreed that a decision on the matter would be put off for discussion at the annual budget meeting at the end of the year.