John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

For 2007, the total amount paid by local authorities on salaries and wages amounted to €1.7 billion or 35% of their total expenditure. More than €1.5 billion is projected to be available to the local government fund in 2009. The general purpose grants are the contributions from my Department to meet the gap between the cost of providing a reasonable level of day to day services and the income they obtain from other sources.

General funding grants to local authorities have increased quite dramatically in recent years. The grants provided for 2009 are approximately 190% above the corresponding grants provided in 1997.

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