Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to comment on this particular issue. It is something that is of significant importance from a financial point of view. This issue has come before the Committee of Public Accounts. Only yesterday, we were finalising our periodic report. There is an entire chapter in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on this issue because of the impact on public finances.

The Comptroller and Auditor General has highlighted the fact that over the coming ten years there will be an increase in vehicle registration but a drop in income of €250 million in receipts from motor taxation because of the lower rates paid on newer cars. The fourth point in the response from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport refers to how any restructuring of the motor tax system generally takes place in an overall budgetary context but that at present no plans are in place to move away from charging motor tax on the basis of carbon emissions. That is fine. However, what is neither fine nor being considered by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is how the Government plans to fill the hole of €250 million that will develop.

Where does that money go? It goes to local government. The local government system is the most under-funded system in this country. I asked a parliamentary question on the matter and I got a smart-assed answer back. I asked about the impact on the income of local government. Of course there has been a sleight of hand because income is not paid directly into the Local Government Fund. Instead, it goes to central Exchequer funds. Anyway, it finds its way back into the local government system by virtue of the fact that it goes to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport for roads.

The Comptroller and Auditor General has also criticised the Government in light of the multiplicity of funding streams being used to fund local government. The end product is that we get a weakened system of local government by virtue of how this is all set up. This is wrong. It is laughable that on the one hand a Minister will reply by saying that any restructuring will have to be done within a budgetary context. Yet, at the same time the Government is making no provision for the fact that there will be a €250 million hole in the funding stream that makes its way into local government. That is a big amount of money by any stretch of the imagination.