Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I put it to Mr. Doyle that it should not be for the Comptroller and Auditor General, who produces an excellent report, to clarify the funding lines. In many ways, it is to the benefit of the Department that the issue is so complex because changes to local government funding can be very difficult for the people who set budgets to track. Councillors from all parties and none will say that it is very difficult to say in any given year whether a local authority's income is up or down or to figure out the source of the increase or decrease. Dublin City Council is a classic example. Its homeless budget is so large that in any one year, it can obliterate any surplus. I am not taking from the complexity of local government funding but the Department needs to do more to try to ensure that local authority members can get a grip on that area.