Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude by examining the supports that have been provided to Galway County Council in recent years. Across all schemes and funding sources, the Department provided €51.1 million in 2019 and €82.9 million in 2020 to Galway County Council. The increase in 2020 was due to an increase in capital funding for housing as well as funding in respect of the unprecedented Covid-19 commercial rates waiver, additional expenses and lost income linked to the pandemic. Galway County Council also uniquely received a once-off allocation of €1 million for 2021. This funding was linked to the operation of municipal districts and was subject to a small number of requirements, including that the funding be divided equally among the municipal districts. The Department is currently reviewing correspondence from the council in respect of this funding to determine if each of the conditions have been complied with.

The Department has recently confirmed an allocation towards the additional costs that will arise for local authorities in 2022 as a consequence of the national pay agreements and the unwinding of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation. The allocation for Galway County Council will be €4.44 million, the objective of which is to reduce the cost of pay and pensions next year. In addition, local property tax allocations to local authorities for 2022 have been recently confirmed in the amount of €524 million, a figure which includes the impact of local variation decisions. The allocation to Galway County Council for local property tax is €14.5 million. This includes €2.7 million of equalisation funding as the 80% of the local property tax retained locally in Galway's case is lower than the baseline or minimum funding level. All local authorities have the opportunity to vary their local property tax rates by plus or minus 15%. Galway County Council has opted not to avail of this opportunity since 2017. Had it availed of the opportunity to raise the tax, the council would have benefited from an additional €2.2 million.

The adoption of a budget is probably the single most important duty that elected members are called on to carry out each year and I will take this opportunity to remind them of their responsibilities.

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