Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach cé go bhfuil díomá orm nach bhfuil an tAire Tithíochta, Rialtais Áitiúil agus Oidhreachta anseo anocht. The problem with the current system of distribution of the equalisation fund is that it is neither open and transparent nor equitable. Persistent questions from me over the years have failed to get the rationale behind the current system. This has left a number of councils underfunded, even with the distribution under the equalisation fund, and they now have an ensuing crisis in services and staff levels, which is seriously inhibiting their work.

The report of the expert committee established by the previous Minister to examine the amalgamation of Galway City Council and Galway County Council came to the conclusion that both local authorities in Galway were underfunded and that this issue needed to be addressed forthwith. In fact, even though it was in favour of amalgamation, it said the funding crisis had to be dealt with first. In Galway County Council, where the crisis is more extreme, it has left virtually no staff to look after planning enforcement throughout the county. It has resulted in a situation where the planning officers dealing with planning applications have to deal with twice as many applications as equivalent planning officers in the neighbouring county deal with. There are no staff, or a totally inadequate number of staff, to deal with housing adaptation applications, mobility aids and so forth. While the Department is offering an increasing number of grants to local authorities under various schemes, both rural and urban, other sections are finding it very hard to progress their applications in a suitable way, thus stymieing the development of the county.

County Galway stretches from Ballinasloe - on my way home tonight I will be halfway home when I get to Ballinasloe - to Inishbofin, Cleggan, Clifden and Ballyconneely, which are 160 km apart. In fact, uniquely, when one is driving there one has to go through another local authority to get to the western half of the county. It also stretches from Milltown and Dunmore in the north to Gort and Portumna in the south. A huge area of land is losing out, and it is creaking under the current system. I pay tribute to the staff who have soldiered on, but who are now at breaking point. The reality is that it is sometimes very hard to contact the staff, through no fault of theirs. They are just too busy trying to fire fight in getting planning permissions and planning decisions dealt with.

I am sure the Minister of State has been given a very fancy script. I received a reply to a parliamentary question today which gave me a lot of twaddle about 15%, the local property tax, LPT, and so forth. I am telling the Minister of State to go back to the Department and examine how it arrived at the system for distributing the equalisation fund. If he cracks that one, he will have cracked a greater mystery than I have ever seen anywhere else. Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes or the whole lot would not crack the mystery of the equalisation fund distribution, which dates back about ten years and has left Galway strapped for cash.

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