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

Meaning that €138 million is required. That is no small amount in terms of commitments being made.

The other major issue I raised last year is on the income side, namely, that relating to rates. Again, I am conscious of the Comptroller and Auditor looking at the significant amount of money coming in to local government. This is one of the few areas where the council has a mechanism to raise money. I have made the point in the past decade that dependency has continued to grow at a time when there was major restraint on the part of local authorities as a result of the recession. I am conscious that the Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018 is before Dáil Éireann. On Second Stage, I made the point that the Bill does not go far enough and that the dependency on rates nationwide is really worrying. IBEC has also made this point. Many of the statutory measures being brought forward reflect things that are already being done by councils. Meath County Council has initiated many measures and some counties would have high collection rates. Is the Department looking at trying to increase central funding and introducing other funding mechanisms in order to try to reduce the dependency to which I refer? Having exercised restraint for perhaps the past eight years or so, the temptation is that the heads of finance of local authorities might be of the view that, in the context of this year's budgets, they might be able to bring in more funding via an increase in rates because the new councillors may not know what they are doing. Will the Department attempt to try to increase central funding to dissuade heads of finance from attempting to put that potential increase before councillors?