Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is okay but the legislation is making a significant change whereby local authorities will retain 100% of the local property tax. Therefore, there would not be an equalisation fund from the local property tax proceeds. In fairness, the Minister has acknowledged this. There is a substantial difference in terms of the retention of all of the funds.

How is the baseline calculated for each local authority? Until now local authorities gathered the local property tax in the relevant area and 80% of it was retained while 20% went into the equalisation fund. The difference between the baseline and what the local authority retained was the amount paid out from the equalisation fund. This equalisation fund baseline was the 2014 grant received before the local property tax and what it was retaining in pension-related deductions. Is this still the baseline? Will the baseline increase each year? My concern is there is a commitment from the Government to ensure nobody is worse off. If we were back with the old model of the grant surely it would have been increasing over the decade to deal with the additional costs and pressures on local authorities?