Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will try to illustrate my point. Taking the two counties of Wicklow and Mayo, the population of Wicklow is greater than that of Mayo by 12,000. The baseline for Wicklow is €6.84 million and the baseline for Mayo is €17 million, even though the population of Mayo is smaller. The overall spend in Mayo when everything is taken into consideration is €125 million. In Wicklow, it is €91 million. This means the larger populated area has the smaller amount of funding. These baselines date back to the needs and resources model of 2001 and have only been tweaked since. I am aware of the change that occurred last year in regard to the pension-related deduction. It was not about addressing the baselines in the sense I am talking about. Unless population changes matter, growing areas will lose out in terms of the opportunity cost in respect of services that they should be providing. This will result in significant resentments. I ask the Minister of State to ensure this issue is looked at in the context of any review.

In regard to the local property tax, this tax essentially was a replacement for the general purposes grants. There was an expectation that it would be an addition to the general purposes grants but people are now twigging that is not the case. The baseline issue is an important issue, particularly for growing areas.

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