Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An issue arising out of this is that two of the largest local authorities in the State have passed a motion requesting the Minister to overturn this measure. In the case of Dublin City Council, it was passed unanimously, which means that Government party councillors backed the motion. I bring to the Minister's attention also that when councillors sat down to pass their budgets last year and try to carve out as best they could the moneys available to them they were not notified that the local government grant was conditional on full collection of this payment. The Minister sought to implement it in the third quarter on the day we left this building for the recess. That was a cynical move on his part. It may seem to be a clever move, and many people might smile at it, but it was a cynical move on the day the Dáil went into recess.

I have asked about this matter previously, and I know it will come up under other questions about local government reform, because all we are seeing is services and money being taken away from local authorities. Local authorities are in crisis. The morale of councillors of all parties and none is very low. They cannot see where all of this is going. We have been trying to get information about it from the Minister here without any luck; he continues to give the same answers. The morale of local authority staff also is very low with the situation they are trying to deal with.

The Clare County Council situation has been mentioned. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, stated this morning that he expects other councils will follow suit in the future but that it will be on their own initiative. The question was asked, and I want to ask the Minister directly, if there is an initiative from his Department. Has he advised councils to do this? Has an instruction gone out to local authorities to use the payment of the household charge as a condition for processing third level grant applications or to slow down or speed up those applications? Has the Minister had any discussions with the Local Government Management Services Board on that matter?

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