Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

From my experience of being on a local authority for many years, one constant was that it would not be able to set the budgets until March perhaps and then there was a difficulty if it did not get the money spent by October. There was a difficulty in getting it spent within the allotted timeframe and the uncertainty of the funding was always criticised. I know the funding can fluctuate in that there may well be more money next year and the year after. If there is a rolling fund, however, one if less likely to see that happen.