Mr. John McCarthy:

We had a bit of a discussion on this earlier with Deputy Cassells. The proportionate share of rates in the revenue funding of local authorities, certainly from 2014 to 2017, has actually come back slightly. It was 36% in 2014 and was 33% in 2017. In fact the actual quantum, if one looks at the revenue income from rates, has largely stayed static. According to the accounts the yield from rates would have been exactly €1.5 billion in 2014. In 2017, the figure had dropped to €1.476 billion.