Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The Vote expenditure was spread across five programmes, as indicated in the figure which is now on the screen. Programme A, Housing, accounted for €1.3 billion, amounting to almost two thirds of the Vote’s gross expenditure in 2017. Programme C, Local Government, accounted for €388 million, or 19%, and the bulk of that expenditure was accounted for in the form of a transfer of €365 million to the Local Government Fund. Programme B, Water Services, accounted for expenditure of €326 million, or 16% of the Vote total, of which €292 million related to payments to Irish Water.

The income of the Local Government Fund in 2017 was €1.86 billion. This comprised motor tax receipts of €1.02 billion paid directly into the fund, local property tax transfers from the Exchequer amounting to €477 million and the funding of €365 million from the Vote, as referred to earlier. Members may wish to note that significant changes have been made in the fund’s income streams from January 2018 and the Accounting Officer will outline some of those changes for the members.

The fund expenditure in 2017 amounted to €1.83 billion. It should be noted that this included a payment to the Exchequer, at the direction of the Minister for Finance, amounting to €230 million. As a result, the net expenditure from the fund on programmes and services was just over €1.6 billion. Almost 40% of this was accounted for by a subvention to Irish Water. About 38% went directly from the fund to local authorities. Some 22% went to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport for roads-related spending, and a substantial part of this was subsequently transferred to local authorities for road construction and maintenance.

Because of the complexity of the various fund flows, chapter 4 is compiled to present an overview of the level of net funding provided by central Government to local authorities, the purposes for which that funding is provided and trends over time. Central Government transfers to local authorities amounted to a total of €2.66 billion in 2017, up almost 20% year on year. Most of the increase was in regard to housing and urban regeneration, which accounted for almost half of the transfers. There was relative stability in the funding provision for other programmes in 2017.

Members may wish to note that chapter 1 of my report for 2017 includes a summary of the Exchequer funding provided to Irish Water. This amounted to a total of €1.2 billion and comprised payments of €292 million form the Vote, €639 million from the fund and a capital contribution of €270 million paid directly to Irish Water from the Central Fund of the Exchequer.