Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding Deputy Cowen's points, we did not take €600 million out of the local property tax. Seeing as how the total take was €550 million, we could not possibly have done that. The €600 million has come from motor tax, which used to be the Exchequer's means of helping local authorities with their funding. All of the proceeds of the local property tax are going into local authority services. I expect to be able to tell the local authorities what the allocations to their 2014 budgets will be within the next 24 hours.

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