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

I have raised this issue in the Committee of Public Accounts and other forums. I understand it is complex and have been told there will be winners and losers. There is a view that we will know who are the winners and losers after the general election. The decisions being made by local authorities must be made in the context of next year's budget. Delays in this regard mean that local authorities with rapidly growing populations are stretching limited resources even further. For example, Meath has half the staff of Kerry. I am not saying that we can change that overnight but the baseline means that this is counted as a need and resourced so there is no way of catching up in the case of a growing area. Deferring this until after the general election, which is what is happening, will make people feel very cynical about this. It undermines the tax.

See this speech in context