Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Healy-Rae for raising this important question. I know that the issue of local authority deficits is a matter of concern around the country. It is coming up from Deputies from all constituencies. I understand from Deputy Griffin that the financial gap for Kerry County Council is estimated at about €5 million or €6 million for 2020, potentially rising to €13 million for 2021. That would be a grave situation indeed. The Government understands that local authority income is down for many different reasons, ranging from parking charges not coming in to other charges and income streams being depleted. It is a matter that is being worked on by my colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath. As the Deputy knows, we waived commercial rates for quarters two and three for most businesses. There was a commercial rates holiday for most businesses for six months. Usually, even in a good year, a local authority might only collect 87% or 88% of that money. We gave them the full 100% anyway, so they got more than they would have from commercial rates in a normal year. We are examining what we are going to do about quarter four rates. An announcement about that will be made in the budget next week. We are aware that additional funding will be required for local authorities to plug deficits that are arising. It is very much in the mix for the budget.

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