Mr. John McCarthy:

We have had discussions on this issue on a number of previous occasions. As the Deputy has said, the per capitafunding to local authorities varies quite a bit between them. I will set out where we are in terms of LPT-related funding of local authorities. When we made the transition from the old general purpose grants to the LPT in 2014 or 2015, the policy decision taken at the time was that no local authority should be worse off.

A particular approach to distributing the LPT was then decided on. It involved some money going into an equalisation fund. Even that was not enough to ensure that all local authorities would not be worse off. That is why some of the Exchequer contribution to the fund is used to supplement those local authorities.

The provenance of the distribution has an origin that goes back quite some time. It can be traced as far back as the needs and resources model in 2000, which covered a range of factors. I mention it because the figures that the Deputy has referenced are per capitaones. The needs and resources model, which dates back 20 years, was-----