Mr. Paul Lemass:

I might take a few of those questions together. Regarding baselines, which are now referred to as LPT allocations, I will be clear. The Minister makes proposals on LPT allocations. He does so within the constraints of the LPT legislation, which is the responsibility of the Department of Finance. Effectively, we are constrained by the funding that is available within that legislation. The Department of Finance commissioned a report from Dr. Don Thornhill on the LPT legislation, how it was administered and how it could be improved. I understand that the Department of Finance will review its approach in 2018. Our Department will be actively involved in that process to ensure that questions regarding issues such as the baseline are brought to the table at that point.

On the question of leniency that Senator Murnane O'Connor raised, we will get into that issue in more detail next week, but the policy towards rate payments is that the priority is for the ratepayer to engage with the local authority. Under the current system, there are two moieties annually, with rates paid partly in January-February and partly after July. The proposal, which we will discuss in more detail next week, is for that to be spread out over the year. The priority is for the ratepayer to engage with the local authority. It is only where the ratepayer declines to engage that further measures must be taken. This is the approach that we are proposing.

The decision to vary LPT is a local one. Seven out of 31 local authorities have chosen to increase property tax from between 2.5% to 10%. The number decreasing it has reduced to four, not all of which are decreasing it by the full 15%. There is a significant change.

I might revert to the Senator with a breakdown on the discretionary side of grants and subsidies. We will get some more detail and send her a note.