Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I will take the second point first. I am not sure if it is possible to use the census of population, which has a very specific focus. It is an interesting thought. I am open to any suggestion that might work. Regarding Kildare, as the Deputy knows, I have allocated a huge increase in the resources of local authorities in the past two years — the Government has been in the fortunate position to do so. For example the general purpose grant this year totalled €875 million, of which Kildare County Council got more than its fair share. This represents an increase significantly higher than inflation. Kildare County Council was the only local authority to make a request of this nature. Like every other local authority, it has a variety of sources, including commercial rates, rents, fees, charges and a variety of other income streams of which it can avail to do this work. The total cost on all local authorities in 2004 for work associated with elections was €6.8 million. It was €4.7 million in 2003 and €3 million in 1994. In the context of local government funding, which this year runs close to €9 billion, that is not a huge imposition.

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