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

The Government wanted an 80% retention of the local property tax to allow local authorities more discretion in their budgets from 1 January 2014. However, we were not in a position to do that because of EU-IMF matters. We expect to be able to do it from 1 January 2015, instead. Those councillors elected on 23 May 2014 will be able to vary their budgets plus or minus 15% from the national rate from 1 January 2015.

Local authorities received €490 million for operational and maintenance costs for water supplies. The Dublin local authorities were subsidising their water supplies considerably.