Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is no intention to misrepresent the payments of the local government fund. The fund has made a payment back to the Exchequer for a number of years. The details are published in the Estimates each year. Local property tax for 2014 is €491 million. As I have previously stated, it is unaudited and the process of auditing will now proceed. The estimated figure for 2015 is €440 million.

I need to nail a myth here. Every cent of the local property tax goes to local authorities. Some 80% of it is retained locally. The remaining 20% is used in an equalisation scheme to ensure that local authorities do not go below the level of the previous year. I am sure the Deputy, coming from one of the smaller counties, in the midlands, will respect the fact that it is necessary to have such an equalisation fund and to manage the property tax in this way to ensure counties, with their various different issues, are dealt with in a fair way.

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