Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill. There are two very significant elements to the Bill, the increase in the motor taxation regime and the new motor taxation system based on CO2 emissions. It is rather unusual to hear any politician or public representative welcoming a Bill that increases taxes. However, I believe there is a sound basis for welcoming the notion of an increase in taxation because the taxation involved will go back directly to the local authority. As somebody who very much supports the work of local authorities, I believe that we as legislators should strive to reduce the notion of big government and the involvement of the national Government in local issues in so far as possible. The best way to do so is to empower the local authorities and the executive locally, and put the decision making to some extent where it is required — back to the people elected to do it.

This Bill, through the increase in revenues which will ultimately accrue to the various local authorities, is positive and should find a level of welcome throughout the country. There is no doubt that increasing taxes is always a problem. However, when there is a requirement to finance the various different projects in local authority areas, it is better to do it in a direct way rather than taking the funding into the central Exchequer through increases in personal taxes. I have always believed — I am sure everybody in the House would agree — that taking it into the central Exchequer always makes it more difficult to get that funding back to the local authorities in the regions. That is the problem of big government and the centralisation of government. If I recall it was you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, who started that. It was a very noble decision on your behalf at the time because it clearly underpins contributing money to the local authorities in a manner that is transparent and can be seen to best effect by the citizen. Wherever possible, it is important to move away from centralising the taxation system and allow this to happen.

While the Minister is not in the House, I welcome the Minister of State who is representing him. If the Minister had any doubts about the validity of this Bill, those would have been overcome by the nature of the arguments put forward by the Opposition. The level of debate had descended into an argument over second-hand cars. It is clear that in principle what the Minister is attempting to do with this legislation is positive and a step in the right direction. From the contributions I heard from the other side, nobody seemed to address the big picture but focused on the minute detail of whether cars that were purchased by a particular date would hold their value for a period of time. Somebody put forward the suggestion that sales representatives would be travelling around the country in order to increase mileage. Most of us in this House travel a significant distance every week and we would minimise the level of travel if we could.

It is worth noting the issue of local government funding. The increase in taxation resulting from the Bill will have some impact in addressing the underfunding of local authorities. The local government fund provided by the Department has an impact on local authorities. However, unfortunately, many counties argue they do not get their fair share based on demographic changes that have taken place in recent years. To get parochial for a moment, that certainly has been the case for many years in County Clare, which has not been able to remain in step with other counties when calculated on a per capita basis. In line with the decisions he has taken here to increase taxation and provide further funding to local authorities, I urge the Minister to carry out a significant review of the local government fund as it applies to the various different local authorities in order to address the significant changes in the demographics in some counties.

Some counties have fared better than others because they have not experienced the same level of influx of migration. That has put particular strain on some local authorities to deliver the services now needed. The latest census figures demonstrate that clearly and I am sure the next one will help to identify where that growth trend has continued. If it is done on a per capita basis, it would inform the decision making in the Department as to how much should be transferred from central government to each of the local authorities to allow them to deliver the kind of services needed in a modern society.

There will always be a debate on the balance between keeping taxes low to spur the economy on and assist in the kind of growth patterns we have seen for years, while at the same time having sufficient funds to allow the relevant authorities deliver the services they are charged with delivering. The difficulty lies in finding the right balance. The more that can be done through direct taxation focused specifically on the various different services, the better. Obviously, the taxation collected here is targeted at the wider local authority service delivery but more particularly at assisting local authorities in providing their portion of funding towards the construction, maintenance and development of secondary, local and regional roads within the competency of the various local authorities. The Department needs to consider that for various other services, including water pricing policy and the polluter pays principle.

The burden on local authorities for the provision of services has increased significantly over the years. The population shift is there for all to see, particularly as identified in the census. It is continuing in line with the growth of economic centres away from the east coast — it is right throughout the west. It is partly in line with the national development plan and the spatial strategy beginning to work in a coherent fashion. There is a necessity from that point of view to ensure the kind of resources required are provided. While the residential development levy provides funds to deal with some of the more localised issues, that should not be confused with the real burden on local authorities in areas such as the development of water and sewerage services.

The past five or six years have seen a virtual stagnation in the number of new sewage treatment systems being developed in rural villages purely because of the introduction of the water pricing policy that required each local authority to come up with a very significant portion of the cost on the basis that the polluter would ultimately pay from within the commercial sector. Unfortunately, that puts a burden on local authorities to amortise over a period of time those costs for which they cannot get payment immediately. That creates a burden in terms of their capacity to deal with the associated debt. The Department needs to review that in terms of the delivery of roads also.

There has been considerable debate about sewerage and the water pricing policy and its effects in that regard. We need to consider how that can be assisted in terms of the delivery of new road links required by virtue of new housing developments, etc. These changes need to be taken into account when deciding on the local government fund in future. Local government funding and motor taxation are utilised by many local authorities in a multiplicity of ways. The priority is to deliver on key services, including local and regional roads. Councils have an obligation to fund their part of that expenditure from the local government fund and motor taxation. It is critical that they do so because as communities grow, new residential developments occur, the economic model in various counties changes and new enterprises start up, there is a requirement to develop new road links. There is also a requirement to develop new secondary, local and regional roads as a result of the new motorway developments and bypasses around various towns. Therefore, there is a significant need to upgrade our road network and we should be mindful of that aspect. Anything that helps directly to continue local authority funding is positive and for that reason I welcome the increase in taxation from which positive benefits can accrue.

We must also improve expenditure on local and regional roads. Earlier today, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport received a good briefing from Mr. Noel Brett of the Road Safety Authority and the Garda Commissioner concerning their current strategy to reduce road deaths. There is no doubt that spending on local and regional roads has a positive knock-on effect on reducing road deaths. It is, therefore, incumbent on us and the local authorities to improve road safety.

There is a health and safety requirement concerning road work sites. Nationally, we have paid scant regard to the treatment of construction sites on secondary, regional and local roads. Considerable efforts are made in this regard on some national routes, but construction work on minor routes is less than perfect. In other countries, particularly the United States, high visibility signage is used to mark the most minor works on local and regional roads. Police cars must be stationed at the site of all road works in the state of Massachusetts, for example, although I am not suggesting that we should go that far. Nonetheless, we must approach the road safety issue realistically.

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