John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Local authorities have budgeted to spend some €11 billion in 2009 between current and capital expenditure. The capital income is funded mainly through grants, borrowing and other capital income sources. Current expenditure is funded from specific grants, commercial rates, income from goods and services and general purpose grants. I am providing some €905.2 million in general purpose grants from the local government fund to local authorities for 2009. These grants are my contribution to meet the difference between the cost to local authorities of providing an acceptable level of day to day services and the income available to them from local sources and from specific grants. It is a matter for each local authority to prioritise its spending, within the resources available to it, across the range of services it provides.

The Government decided to broaden the revenue base of local authorities by introducing a charge on all non-principal private residences. I consider this to be a very important development in providing local authorities with a new source of local revenue and one which will reduce their dependency on central funding.

Local authorities are not immune to the effects of the downturn in the economy. However, while there are pressures on resources at all levels, local authorities are required to introduce efficiencies where possible and to prioritise their expenditure to focus on essential services and to maximise the use of all resources available to them. I intend to advance the White Paper on local government later this year following, in particular, Government consideration of local government financing in light of the report of the Commission on Taxation and the commitments included in the renewed programme for Government.

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