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

I should say at the outset that this does not fundamentally refer to local property tax, so I do not believe it falls within the rubric of Government policy. It refers to the allocation of funding to local government, as it relates formally to the local government fund. The information was gathered around 2000 based on what was known as the needs and resources model. It counted what was there historically and the benchmark was that no local authority was to lose out.

There was no future-proofing of the model and no counting of population. There have been several censuses of population since then. The baselines which were set originally around 2000 or 2001 are not very different from what is used now. There would have been changes relating to Irish Water and the associated transfer of staff, resources and liabilities and there was a change last year related to how pensions were calculated, but otherwise the baselines have not changed.

I have examined a number of comparators between counties that are growing rapidly and some that are not growing as quickly. In all cases where there has been a population increase, I have tried to match them with counties of comparable sizes. For example, Mayo has a baseline of €17 million whereas Wicklow has a baseline of €6 million. If one considers how the local property tax, LPT, is impacted by the baseline, one will see that Mayo receives a sizable transfer of funds whereas Wicklow contributes to the LPT fund. In terms of gross expenditure by counties that are not dissimilar, however, Mayo actually has a great deal more money to spend.

Other pairs show the same trends. Where Limerick City and County Council is concerned, the city has a decent commercial rates base. Fingal has the lowest baseline in the country, but it has been the most rapidly growing area. Parts of Fingal did not even exist when the resourcing model was established.

The baseline is influencing how much of the money that must be spent is self-funded, effectively replacing the grants that would otherwise have been paid from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport or Housing, Planning and Local Government. The baselines need to be amended and account must be taken of population changes in any calculation if there is to be a fair allocation and value for money around the country.

I wrote to determine whether the committee would consider this matter. What is being examined at the moment is exclusively a revaluation of LPT. Projecting that revaluation forward, the areas with stronger population growth will recover better and, due to the baselines, far more authorities will fall into the self-funded category and will have less discretion with the overall take. The LPT will be undermined by the baselines.

I wrote because I was unsure as to whether this matter fell within our remit, but it is problematic.