Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Submissions in relation to the mid-term review and the additional funding available were sought by my Department in January and have now been received.

Submissions were not sought at that time by my Department directly from local authorities as we do not allocate funding directly to local authorities nor was it envisaged that the review would seek to determine the allocation of Exchequer resources to individual local authorities.

The allocation from central government to local authorities is determined by the relevant Government Department with responsibility for particular aspects of infrastructural spending, for example, housing and urban regeneration and transport investment.  The assessment of the requirement for increased capital expenditure by local authorities is, therefore, first and foremost a matter for the relevant Government Department.

The short answer to this is that many of the infrastructural needs that local authorities will be raising are raised, I expect, by the Government Department that has responsibility for that area. All that being said, across the process, 12 different local authorities did make submissions. The Deputy will be pleased to note that one of them was Donegal County Council.

See this speech in context