Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

This is an important motion because it puts the spotlight on the issue of local government funding in this country. There are major problems with that issue in this State. Every county will have its representatives to focus on the issues at play in their own county. I want the Minister of State to focus on this particular issue. County Meath is particularly hammered by a lack of funding for a range of issues. This is because the population of Meath has increased incredibly over recent years but local government funding has not kept pace with the per capita increase. There are 220,000 people living in Meath. In practically every single investment sector, Meath is at the bottom of local government funding. Meath County Council gets 60% of the average local government funding per capitain the State. That is incredible. It has wide ramifications for a range of different issues. Meath has the fourth lowest number of local authority houses in the State. There are 22 counties, including County Longford, with more local authority houses per capitathan Meath. Meath County Council does not have the money to build playgrounds, community centres and all the things you need for a proper community to function. Johnstown is one of Navan's biggest suburbs with 6,000 people living in it. It is about 20 years old but it has no playground. They have been campaigning for 20 years to get a playground there and it is still not built. A whole generation of people have grown up in Johnstown without access to a playground. It has no community centre. Young people have nowhere to go to have positive engagement with their peers. What happens when people have nowhere to go? They hang around the streets. They get involved in messing about the place and that causes difficulties for local communities as well.

Meath has the lowest investment per capitain mental health services, in residential rehabilitation for young people and for dual diagnosis. Recently the 24-hour mental health services were taken out of our county as were the headquarters of the gardaí. The Minister of State should find it important that Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. It is promised in the new national transport plan but no money is ring-fenced for it. It is for a future government to decide whether to fund that project and that project is not planned to be built until 2031 at the earliest and maybe 2036. Everyone in this room will probably be retired before a rail line goes into one of the largest towns in the country. That funding has major negative effects on our society. Longwood has nowhere for its cub scout group to function. If the Minister of State could do one thing for us that I would really appreciate, it would be to equalise the per capitainvestment. We are not looking for more than anyone else; we simply want to equalise the per capitainvestment in local authorities around the country to ensure it reflects the population. There are many vacant public buildings that could be brought into community use. A school building in Longwood, which is owned by the State, has been vacant for some years and has been smashed up through antisocial behaviour. A cub scout troop in Longwood is looking to use it. We need to be able to be practical. We need some common sense in the use of the State and community facilities that we have in our counties.

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