Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For the purposes of local government financing, under the Local Government Bill, all of the local property tax proceeds this year and in 2014 will go to the local authorities.

The 2014 property tax in its entirety will go to the local authorities. There will be a retention level from 1 January 2015 which the local authorities will be permitted to vary by a margin of plus or minus 15%. I wish we could have done this on 1 January 2014 but the work on the financial systems will not be in place by that date. Irish Water has be bedded in. The members will know from their contacts with local authorities that their officials will have significant work to do and it takes time. We could have had the work done for 1 July 2014 but that is in the middle of the financial year. We decided to wait until 1 January 2015 to bring in the local property tax retention rate. This will be of significant assistance to a number of local authorities who will not get the benefit immediately in 2014 but will benefit in 2015 and beyond.