Councillors in Cork have passed the city's 2015 budget. The council initially failed to ratify the budget on November 17th - that meeting lasted five hours and included two votes on the budget, both of which were defeated by one vote.
Last night the budget was passed by 17 votes to 12, with 15 of the yes votes coming from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives.
The budget was opposed by Sinn Féin and a number of independent councillors, who said the budget was too austere. The city's funding is being cut by €13 million, down to €152 million. Cork has lost €43 million in funding over the last three years.
If the councillors failed to pass the budget within 14 days of the original vote, it faced the threat of being abolished, with the responsibility for running the city being transferred to administrators in Dublin.
Lord Mayor, councillor Mary Shields of Fianna Fáil appealed to councillors to not let "petty partisan politics" lead to the abolition of the council.
Sinn Féin in Cork City's official Twitter account expressed the party's disappointment at the passing of the budget.
Unfortunately the budget passed by 17 votes to 12 with 1 abstention. SF councillors voted against the budget. #CorkCC
— Cork Sinn Féin (@CorkSinnFein) November 24, 2014
Sinn Féin councillor Chris O'Leary said he and his party could not vote to ratify a budget which did not deal with the issue of homelessness - the number of people sleeping rough in the city has increased from 38 in 2011 to 230 in 2014.
The final breakdown of the vote was ten Fianna Fáil, five Fine Gael and two Independents for; and eight Sinn Féin, three form the Anti-Austerity Alliance, and one Workers Party representative voted against - one independent councillor abstained.
