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

There may be but in the main, one finds that if one puts some areas at the top and some at the bottom, the common denominator will be that the areas that have a rapid and sustained population growth will tend to be the ones with a lower ratio of staff.

I was in a local authority when the crash happened and essentially all of the temporary staff were the first to go. It is a much more precarious situation.

There are whole areas of Fingal, such as Ongar and Tyrrelstown, that did not exist when the needs and resources assessment of fiscal equalisation was modelled. How can one possibly count the services that are required in these areas?

I am looking at the gross expenditure in terms of a fair distribution of resources. I am using the 2016 figures to comment on the gross expenditure of local authorities. One cannot spend what one has not got, but I refer to counties, such as the ones that have been used in the analysis that I have seen, namely, counties Mayo and Wicklow, in describing how the local property tax works. One finds the gross expenditure tracks the same, that is, one will find areas that are quite large net contributors in terms of local property tax that have a lower gross expenditure and a higher population than other areas. If one were to land from Mars and look at this, one would say there was something very strange and that it would not be possible to do that review without a sizeable amount of additional money if it was to be a fair review for those rapidly developing areas. I apologise; I am having a rant. I admit it drives me absolutely bananas to see the impact this is having on local property tax where counties that are net contributors are adjacent to counties that are net recipients. There is a perception of that area being poorer when in actual fact it is probably better off in terms of library opening hours, swimming pools or greater ability to engage with people on the investment that is needed. I hope there will be a sizeable change in that but I am not holding my breath, having waited for 20 years.

My final question is on the Housing Agency and relates to the revolving acquisitions fund. Is the Housing Agency a separate agency for the purposes of auditing?