Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start for the moment. Our colleagues will be coming in as the vote in the Dáil concludes. I want to ask a couple of questions about the Local Government Fund. A few years ago, almost €2 billion was provided through the fund. There was €1 billion in motor tax receipts. We used to have the Exchequer contribution and the local property tax, LPT, as well. That amounted to €1.9 billion in 2016. That figure has since decreased. It is estimated that it will be €650 million in 2019, mainly from the LPT and the Exchequer contribution. I will ask a question about the Local Government Fund before I hand over to Deputy Cassells as the first lead speaker. In a nutshell, the bulk of the funds that used to go through the Local Government Fund are not going to go through it any more. The main item in there, aside from the Exchequer contribution used to fund local authorities, which is something that could be done directly through the Department's Vote, is the LPT. By and large, the LPT is the other real source of income in there now. That is actually collected by the Revenue Commissioners in any event. Then it is transferred to this fund before being distributed onwards. Does Mr. McCarthy, as the Accounting Officer who is responsible for that account, accept that there might be a case to be made for saying the fund is no longer needed, given that it has decreased to one third of the throughput it had a couple of years ago and most of what is now going through the account could as easily be dealt with through the Department's Vote? I would like Mr. McCarthy to respond to that question. He can see where the account is going.