Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak about housing. The Minister hit the nail on the head when he said each local authority was different. Rural local authorities are not receiving the same amount as councils such as Dublin City Council. They do not have the tools to take in high incomes. I know that the Minister will look at rural counties such as Carlow when he is putting his housing programme in place. Many local authorities in rural counties are not bringing in enough money to fund housing. I know that the Minister will consider all of the different aspects I have raised with him. Rural councils do not have the money they need, which is there is homelessness in rural areas. The position is different in the capital city.

I would like to return to the issue of the funding of local authorities. As the Minister has met representatives of the local authority in Carlow, he is aware that it has a €2 million shortfall in capital funding this year. It just does not have the tools to bring in extra funding. I do not know whether the local authority will pass a budget this year. I believe the Department needs to receive extra capital funding on behalf of the taxpayers who have paid their taxes during the years. The Minister has told me that other local authorities are looking for funding also, but I emphasise that this is a serious case. I have never before seen budgets like this at local authority level. The pre-budget meetings are taking place. The Minister needs to address the capital funding of local authorities that are in need.

We are always talking about the fiscal space. We are told that €1.1 billion is available for allocation next year. I know that the Minister will address this issue by providing funding for local authorities. We hear about funding and the fiscal space, but this is something we will need to address as we head into a new year in January.

I believe the Minister is examining the best ways to deal with the question of housing, but every area is different and if he does not address every area, he will not solve the homelessness problem.

As I said, water charges are a problem. People pay many taxes, but I understand the Minister's ministerial colleague spoke on a radio programme yesterday about abolishing the universal social charge, USC. Ultimately, we have to be practical and make sure that every local authority passes a budget this year because if they do not, we will have a local authority housing crisis that will need to be addressed.

As I said, rural local authorities are very different in that we get much less funding and because of that, we are delivering very few services. Unless the Minister addresses all those issues, we will be in serious trouble.