Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the answer of the Minister of State that this is being looked at. It needs to be addressed urgently. Hopefully, the review on baseline funding will report by August. I hope this contribution takes into account and represents my constituency which is at a greater disadvantage even than that of Deputy Cassells. Obviously, our concern is for the entire county. In my part of the county, there are a lot of towns which are growing faster now than ever before. Ashbourne is one and services are struggling to catch up. Meath pays out a lot more than it gets back. This is a state and there will, of course, be an element of balancing funding across the country. I am not going to complain about that.

For every €100 of income tax that a Meath resident pays, Meath County Council estimates that only 5% is returned to Meath in local government funding. That must increase.

There is solidarity on all sides of this country and I accept that Meath will never be a net recipient of funding but it does need to increase. We need to have the types of services that I see in rural towns in the west of Ireland that we do not see in places such as Ashbourne, Ratoath or Dunshaughlin. In the case of Kells, where unfortunately the town council was abolished, the services provided in that town have reduced dramatically because there is no council. That needs to change.

I look forward to the report being issued. I appreciate and accept that the Minister is working on it and we look forward to change. The residents deserve this. They are working hard, in most cases outside the county, and it would be nice for them to come home to parks and the facilities to be able to relax when they are not working and to ensure that they have the same standards of public services as everyone else in the country, to which they are entitled.

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