Dáil debates

Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Covid-19 (Local Government): Statements

 

9:20 pm

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity, even if it is only ten minutes, to deal with the issue of local Government. We are well into this crisis and we have not had any debate about local government until now. As others have said, local authorities have very much been a frontline service. In my county of Wexford and across the country they have been the first port of call for many and the anchor bringing together community organisations. The GAA and everyone else who all wanted to help rallied through the local authority and the local councillor who was on the ground, listening and feeding in centrally. Local radio has also been an extraordinary resource in this, as have local papers. We now need to sustain that. They have been critical and remain critical in dealing with the community response to this unprecedented crisis which the nation is facing. They will also be equally important in the next phase, the reopening and rebooting of the economy phase and they need to be prepared for that.

I will focus on the funding difficulties which they now face. I wish to hear clearly the Department's thinking on meeting the shortfall in funding that many Deputies have mentioned and the Minister of State has talked around, but I want to give the Minister of State time to answer on the specific issues.

The total estimate for local government income this year for all local authorities is €5.7 billion. That is the figure they expected to receive in normal times. Of that, €1.66 billion, or 33%, was coming from commercial rates and €1.3 billion, 26%, from goods and services which local government supply and is paid for. I want to hear how the shortfall in those two areas will be met. First, commercial rates was expected to take in €1.66 billion or roughly €133 million a month. The Minister announced a waiver for three months and allocated €260 million to meet its cost. The expected income, if all the rates were paid, was €400 million.

That is for the three months. The Minister of State is saying he is going to pay €260 million or 65% of the expected sum. How has that been calculated? Obviously, not every business is going to be affected. There will be some which will be able to pay full rates, and that is fine, but this is not an absolutely accurate calculation. The Minister of State does not know. He instanced himself, for example, that some pharmacies might do very little and might not be in a position to pay but others might be doing normal business or even more. The Minister of State has an expectation that 35% of the estimated rates income will be paid. If it is not, how much of that will he meet? That is my first question.

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