Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government

Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 25 - Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised)

3:00 pm

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Local Government Fund, the last speaker mentioned harmonisation and equalisation. While I do not want to sound parochial, I come from the Waterford constituency, where three local authorities are being amalgamated - Waterford City Council, Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town Council - and Tramore Town Council and Lismore Town Council are being disbanded. The Minister of State will be aware the Valuation Office carried out a revaluation of properties in that constituency, which will cause an upheaval to how the local authorities are funded, particularly given the new amalgamated status.

What is happening is that the legacy system - the valuation system - will now be implemented in what is a planned system of funding local government through amalgamations and trying to create new efficiencies. I know the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has said it is his and the Department's intention that rates should not increase. However, quite the opposite is happening, particularly in Waterford. It is a low rate base county, in any event, and it has traditionally depended on the Local Government Fund to keep services going. I ask that the Minister of State would look at Waterford, perhaps as a pilot project, and then look at the wider national issue with regard to rates equalisation and harmonisation in the new scenarios, particularly under local government reform.

This will become a very serious issue in terms of how services are funded and delivered. With the implementation of the property tax in particular, people are going to demand more accountability from local authorities and the Department as to how their euros are spent, rightly so. We need to look closely at how we will align local government funding with future demands and with the new structures that are being proposed in regard to the property tax, water rates and all of that. I would welcome feedback from the Minister of State or the officials on that issue.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.