Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's answer is outrageous. She said it would not be appropriate to increase the funding for Galway County Council only, but we have just outlined the fact that spending per capitafor Galway County Council is significantly lower than in other counties. It is not something that only Sinn Féin is arguing, but it is something that councillors from all parties are saying very clearly. That is why they have rejected the budgets in the municipal districts. They have been clear that there has been underfunding year after year.

The Minister of State also said that had Galway County Council availed of the opportunity to raise local property tax by 15%, it would have an additional €2.2 million. The point is that if the same revenue budget per capitawas available to the council as is available to its closest comparator, there would be an additional budget of €43 million. If the same revenue budget per capita was available to the council as is available to its average comparators, there would be an additional budget of €52 million. That is an enormous amount of money that Galway County Council and the people of Galway county are losing out on.

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